Spurs affixed without Straps 67 



of which springs a rounded spike about half an inch in length. 

 The condition in which the spur is, the workmanship, and 

 everything about it, except the absence of a rowel, point to its 

 having been made in the seventeenth century. There is another 

 very similar spur in the collection of Mr. Redfern, of Cam- 

 bridge. These spurs are certainly not of the period when prick 

 spurs were in vogue — that is, prior to the end of the thirteenth 

 century ; and I have some idea that it was a freak of James I. 

 to equip his huntsmen, or yeomen prickers, with this pattern 

 of spur. 



Another very eccentric pair of spurs are to be seen in 

 the Armeria Reale at Turin, of which an illustration is shown 

 on Plate 41. It is a small gilt iron spur with a very small, 

 curved prick point. Its peculiarity consists in its having a 

 double set of arms. 



There is one pair of arms starting from the heel-plate 

 from which the point springs, which are straight and terminate 

 in single perforations, and which are of the usual length and 

 spread ; then from the top of the heel-plate, in the median 

 line, springs upwards a curved piece of metal about two inches 

 in length. To the top of this is welded a secondary pair of 

 arms, which are directed downwards until the level of the other 

 pair of arms is reached, when they are bent sharply forwards 

 and continued for about an inch and a half close to, but not 

 touching, the straight sides, and terminating in double rings of the 

 pattern very characteristic of the seventeenth century. This, 

 from the appearance and workmanship of the spurs, is most 

 probably their date. They were the invention, I imagine, of 



E 2 



