2 The History of the Spur 



Now these alterations, be it noted, were all made gradually. 

 With spurs, as with nearly everything else, there has never been 

 any violent dislocation of the gradual sequence of change. A 

 certain form of spur would perhaps remain in use for a very 

 long period, and then some individual would consider it an 

 improvement to introduce some alteration of form of some 

 particular part, say of the point, or of the sides, or of the neck, 

 or of the method of attachment to the foot, all the other details 

 remaining the same; and some of his neighbours would adopt 

 the alteration and some would not; and then after a time some 

 other detail would undergo a change. 



And so the alterations were always gradual, some charac- 

 teristics remaining the same for several hundred years. The 

 greatest and most radical change that ever took place in the 

 evolution of the spur was the substitution of the revolving 

 rowel for the primitive goad-like spike or " pryck " ; and it took 

 a hundred years, as we shall see, to bring about this change 

 completely. That is to say, it was rather more than a hundred 

 years between the first introduction of the rowel and the final 

 disappearance of the prick spur from the heels of our forefathers. 



In the earliest times it is probable that spurs were looked 

 upon, just as they are now, merely as useful appliances for 

 encouraging a horse to carry out the wishes of his rider, and 

 that when they were not employed for that purpose, they were 

 laid aside, and no more thought of until the rider mounted his 

 horse again. It was reserved for the Middle Ages to invest the 

 spur with a romantic and emblematical value, which in a great 

 measure led to its extreme elaboration during that period. 



