On the Rowel Spur 47 



spurs turned downwards, it must have been impossible to 

 have walked in them in that position. And so it was, for 

 there is abundant evidence that the wearers of these spurs 

 experienced that inconvenience. 



The spur illustrated on Plate 24 is very interesting in 

 more ways than one. Where the actual spur is at the present 

 time I cannot learn. My illustration is taken from a plate in 

 ArchcBologia, Vol. VIII., and is contained in a letter written 

 by Mr. Francis Grose, in 1785. The spur was dug up on the 

 site of the battle of Barnet, fought in 1471, when making the 

 excavations for the erection of the obelisk to commemorate the 

 battle. It may therefore be reasonably presumed that it was 

 worn by someone who fought there that day. So it not only 

 fixes a date when these spurs were worn — they had probably 

 only just come into use at that " time — but it also affords 

 evidence that these spurs with their huge rowels were actually 

 used in warfare, and not carried only on state occasions. 

 The points of this rowel are three inches in length, so that the 

 rowel was six inches in diameter at least. The neck is four 

 inches long, curved downwards, and decorated with some spiral 

 ornaments on its convex surface. The sides are straight and 

 have some perforated ornamentation in the middle of each. 

 They terminate in two rectangular slits for the attachment of 

 upper and lower straps. The weight of the spur is \o\ ozs. 



There is another piece of evidence that these large rowelled 

 spurs were worn on horseback, and of the inconvenience their 

 wearers found when dismounted, to be found in Some Chronicles 

 of King Henry VIII. of England, translated from the Spanish 



