CONCLUSION 



IHUS have I attempted to trace link by link the gradual 

 sequence of changes of spurs in the long chain which 

 has been handed down to us from the earliest times. 

 The primitive wooden contrivances, if they existed, as I am 

 sure they must have, are, of course, conjectural ; but the 

 evidence afforded by the wooden spurs used by the savages of 

 Patagonia until recent times, though I dare say now they get 

 their spurs from Sheffield, shows that wooden spurs have been 

 used, and I firmly believe were used by the primitive nations 

 of Europe. 



In the earliest metal spurs that have been preserved we see 

 the simplest possible form : a tiny structure that could just be 

 fitted to the heel, with a small point no larger than was 

 sufficient for the purpose of giving the horse a slight prick. 

 We then perceive that the changes which so soon began all 

 tended in one direction, enlargement and amplification — first 

 of the sides, to get a firmer grasp of the foot, and then 

 of the point, with here and there an attempt at ornament. 

 The enlargement in this direction, as the artificers in metal 

 improved in their craft, grew, as I have said, fostered by a 

 spirit of emulation, until a formidable weapon was arrived at, 

 which could do, and doubtless did, harm that was never 

 intended. Then came the various devices for preventing this 

 undue penetration — and so we are brought down to the com- 

 mencem.ent of the Middle Ages. 



