On the Trick Spur 25 



and flat on the inside, terminating in flat plates, to which the 

 straps were secured by rivets. The sides at this period were 

 usually prolonged forwards, so as to bring the ends well to the 

 front of the foot, and enable one strap to pass round the foot, 

 under the sole and over the instep. Frequently there was some 

 attempt at ornament, either in the middle of the sides or in 

 the neck, and occasionally they were inlaid with silver. These 

 characteristics are shown in several of our illustrations, which 

 are taken from spurs found in the City of London, and are 

 preserved in the City of London Museum at the Guildhall, 

 where there is the finest collection of ancient spurs in England. 

 One very early form of this kind of spur, perhaps the 

 very earliest, had the buckle welded on to the end of one 

 of the sides. One of these is preserved in the City of London 

 Museum, and is shown on Plate 8, Fig. i. Its dimensions 

 are — total length six inches, neck one and a quarter inches, 

 sides four and three-quarter inches. In the middle of each side 

 there is a rough attempt at some form of twisted ornament, and 

 at the end of one side a buckle is welded on, and is, in this 

 specimen, in a fair state of preservation, considering that it must 

 have lain a long time in the ground. The end of the 

 other side, now broken, terminated probably in an oval loop. 

 An exactly similar spur was dug up at Linton Heath, in 

 Cambridgeshire, by Mr. Richard Neville, in 1854, when a large 

 Anglo-Saxon burial-place was discovered, and was described 

 in the Archceological Journal for that year. 1 believe this 

 spur is now preserved at Audley End. Its measurements are 

 very much the same as the one found in London, and here 



