spurs affixed without Straps 69 



The necks are curved downwards, and are about an inch long ; 

 the two lower necks side by side, about three-quarters of an inch 

 apart, and the third neck is in the centre above the other two. 

 Each neck has a very ornate and perforated five-pointed rowel, 

 about an inch and a half in diameter. The sides terminate in 

 two rectangular openings for the attachment of the upper and 

 lower straps. This spur is much more elaborately ornamented 

 than the preceding. In the South Kensington Museum there is 

 an elaborate and highly ornamented pair of spurs with five necks. 

 Two necks are arranged side by side above and two side by 

 side below, and the fifth is in the middle. Each neck bears an 

 eight-pointed rowel an inch and a half in diameter, and on each 

 of the eight points of the rowels is a little eight-pointed rowel 

 again, about half an inch in diameter. The sides are slightly 

 curved, three and a half inches long, and with a spread of 

 three and a half inches. The total length of the spur is seven 

 inches. 



These many-necked spurs could not have been made for 

 any practical use, and I can find no history or theory about 

 them. I think, myself, they may have been a sort of badge 

 of some society having for its object celerity of movement, 

 in the same way as our King's Messengers have a silver 

 greyhound for a badge. 



Zschille and Forrer mention three-necked spurs, and give 

 an illustration of one something like the one at Milan, calling 

 it a " Kutschen reiter Sporn." They describe it as being of 

 German make and of the eighteenth century, and they can 

 only conjecture as to the use of these spurs. They have given 



