54 The History of the Spur 



period were all more or less of the same form. In the 

 earlier periods, all that can be said is that a certain form was 

 more often used than another, and so was characteristic of 

 that period. But now we are beginning to find them of one 

 shape only. 



About the middle of the seventeenth century another form 

 of spur was introduced, which appears to have been worn 

 chiefly among the Cavaliers. It was a large and heavy kind 

 of spur, with a large rowel of many points, much resembling 

 the rowel of the Mexican spur. Indeed, the whole spur is 

 very much of the type of the Mexican, but can be distinguished 

 from it by the absence of the large circular heel-plate which 

 is invariably found in the Mexican spur, and which is so 

 characteristic of all spurs of Moorish origin. These spurs of 

 the Cavaliers very frequently had "jingles" attached to them. 

 This was a loose piece of ornamented metal, very like a drop 

 ear-ring, hanging to the side of the centre of the rowel. This 

 clinked against the rowel as the owner walked. My illustration 

 of this form on Plate 33 is taken from one in Mr. Redfern's 

 Collection. It is made of gun-metal, and is decidedly heavy, 

 not only in appearance, but in actual fact. It has straight sides, 

 though this is not universally the case with this form of spur, 

 and a large rowel of sixteen points, two and three quarter 

 inches in diameter, and has the "jingle" attached to it. In this 

 spur we see the first return, after nearly eighteen hundred years, 

 to the mushroom-shaped studs which are so universal at the 

 present time, but which had not been seen since the earliest 

 spurs of the Roman period, with the only exception, so far as 



