INTRODUCTORY 



jT may be reasonably assumed that it occurred to man 

 at an early period of the world's history, as soon, 

 indeed, as he had learned to make a horse carry him, 

 that it would much benefit his position as an equestrian if he 

 could fix some sort of goad to his foot wherewith he might 

 urge on the animal to carry out his wishes, and at the same 

 time leave both hands free for its guidance and for offensive 

 or defensive purposes. 



Having conceived this idea, the most obvious way of 

 putting it into execution was to devise some sort of arrangement 

 possessing arms which should embrace the heel, and which 

 should have a sharp point projecting backwards, with which he 

 might prick his horse's sides, and to bind this arrangement to 

 his foot with a leathern thong — an arrangement found to be so 

 admirably adapted to the purpose for which it was intended that 

 it has existed unaltered to the present day ; unaltered save in detail. 



It is my intention to endeavour to trace these changes of 

 detail — details of form, of size, or of ornament ; changes 

 sometimes brought about by alterations of armour, or of dress, 

 or of shape of saddles, and sometimes apparently dictated by 

 sheer caprice — to trace these various changes from the simplest 

 form of short spike of the Roman period up to the enormous 

 and elaborately ornamented implements of the fifteenth and 

 sixteenth centuries, and down again to the comparatively simple 

 form of the present day. 



