CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 



Exactly when the wearing of heels began cannot 

 be definitely deternined. It is known that the ordinary 

 shoe of the Middle Ages was usually heelless, although 

 sometimes of fantastic design. During the time that 

 the wearing of body-armor was at its height that is, 

 between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries most 

 fantastic and inconvenient forms of foot-gear was worn 

 at certain periods, but such extravagance in design 

 was usually directed to the toe of the boot rather than 

 to the heel. This was true of the armor itself as well 

 as the shoes ordinarily worn. 



Not content with weighting themselves down with 

 encumbering armor for protection, the knights of that 

 day frequently added to the weight of their already 

 cumbersome load by lengthening and broadening the 

 toes of their metal shoes in a most astonishing manner. 

 From the fact that spurs must be worn at the heel, 

 this part of the shoe generally escaped the freaks of 

 fashion, but there seems to have been no limit to the 

 design and modifications of the opposite end of the 

 shoe. Knights on horseback frequently wore iron 

 shoes two feet in length, while the shoes worn while 

 on foot were sometimes of a breadth rivaling that of 

 small snow-shoes, and giving something the same gen- 

 eral appearance with the long spur protruding from 

 the rear. 



For two centuries at least there has been no essen- 

 tial change in the general design of boots and shoes. 

 The revolutionary changes have been in the methods of 

 manufacture, and these largely in the last half century 

 when handwork has been so completely supplanted 



[107] 



