On the Prick Spur 29 



of attachment which might have existed in the original spur, 

 from which this one may have been copied, but which I do 

 not think was at all probable. The prick part, which is 

 perhaps more likely to have been accurately copied, as the 

 ends of the original may have been broken off, consists of a 

 short neck connecting a slightly flattened ball to the heel-plate. 

 The ball is about an inch in diameter, and has a conical spike 

 projecting from it about an inch in length. 



There are in the City of London Museum two fragments 

 of ball-and-spike spurs, showing in each case a straight neck 

 of nearly two inches in length, terminating in a round ball from 

 which a spike three-quarters of an inch long protruded. The balls 

 in both cases are slightly ornamented, but there is nothing remaining 

 of the sides to show whether they were curved or straight. 

 The spurs on the figures in the Bayeux tapestries are, I think, 

 intended to be of the ball-and-spike form. They have straight 

 sides, and a straight neck, and the ball is roughly indicated 

 by a short stitch crossing the neck at right angles and close to 

 the point. I presume that the ball is intended to be portrayed 

 by this cross-stitch. At any rate, it gives no suggestion either 

 of the inserted point or of the cone-shaped head. 



To judge by seals and memorial brasses, spurs of this 

 kind had little or no neck, and the ball was attached close 

 to the round of the heel. The sides were usually straight. 

 An incised slab to the memory of Sir John de Bitton, who 

 died in 1227, represents a ball and spike apparently attached 

 to the foot by a leathern strap, without any metal sides at 

 all. This is not impossible, but I hardly think likely to have 



