Conclusion 8 1 



backs, and they soon dropped a heavy load that was becoming 

 day by day more useless. The same contest is going on now, 

 but the armour is holding its own longer in the struggle, 

 because the ships carry it, and not the men ; still, the end will 

 eventually be the same. But when the complete armour of 

 man and horse of the Tudor period was swept away, spurs a 

 foot long, with all their elaborate decorations, vanished for ever. 

 From that time forth the changes in spurs progressed in the 

 opposite direction to what had gone before, and all tended 

 towards diminution in size and simplification of form. 



The spurs of the Elizabethan and Stuart periods were 

 simple to a degree compared with the ponderous implements 

 of a century before, but they were embellished with decoration 

 most elaborate to our eyes, which are nowadays accustomed to 

 the simplicity of the present utilitarian age. Those were 

 days when beauty of adornment entered more into men's every- 

 day lives than now, and some of the most beautiful decoration 

 ever lavished upon spurs was found upon them during this 

 age. 



Then from the days of Queen Anne, through the Georgian 

 period, and down to the present day, simplification and again 

 simplification became the order of the day, until now we have 

 arrived at very nearly where we started two thousand years ago, 

 with a perfectly simple form, totally devoid of ornament, only 

 sufficiently large to firmly embrace the heel, and capable of 

 no more penetration than is necessary to make a horse under- 

 stand that his rider is urging him on to further endeavours. 



