66 The History of the Spur 



round neck two inches in length, and curved slightly downwards, 

 having a small-toothed serrated rowel three-quarters of an inch 

 in diameter. This heel-plate is welded to a narrow sole-plate 

 arranged to fit round the margins of the sole of a boot. This 

 sole-plate is depressed at its back part to fit the heel of a 

 boot, and the sides are a little more than six inches in length 

 and half an inch wide. Near the ends, towards the toe, are 

 two small upright plates with a square opening in their upper 

 part, presumably for the attachment of a strap which went across 

 the foot near the toe. On the underside of the sole-plates are 

 placed studs at intervals to prevent slipping. An illustration 

 is given on Plate 39. In both these spurs the eccentricity lies 

 in the form of the attachment. 



It may not, however, be out of place to describe here 

 some peculiar spurs in which the eccentricity lies in the 

 adoption of a prick point, long after the period when prick 

 points were in vogue. 



There is a spur in the British Museum which is interesting 

 from the fact that everything about it points to its being of 

 the seventeenth century, except that it has a prick point instead 

 of a rowel. An illustration is given on Plate 40. The sides 

 are curved and are triangular in section, flat on the inside, 

 and end in the usual double rings for the attachment of the 

 two straps. The neck is quadrilateral in section, and about 

 three inches in length. It starts in an upward direction for 

 about half its length, and is then bent downwards at an angle, 

 so characteristic of the spurs of the seventeenth century. The 

 neck ends in a conventional flower of four petals, from the centre 



