No. 83, executed about 1339 (plate 3, fig. 2 and 3) are fine examples of the extent to which the tasteful ornament of these articles of dress was carried. They remind one of the boots "fretted with gold" and embroidered in circles mentioned by John. The greatest variety of pattern and the richest contrasts of colour were aimed at by the maker and inventor of shoes at this period, and with how happy an effect the reader may judge, from the examples just given, as well as from the three also engraved in pl. 3, Nos. 4, 5, and 6, and which are copied from Smirke's copies of the paintings, which formerly existed on the walls of St. Stephen's Chapel at Westminster, and which drawings now decorate the walls of the meeting room of the Society of Antiquaries. It is impossible to conceive any shoe more exquisite in design than fig. 4, of our plate. It is worn by a royal personage, and it brings forcibly to mind the rose windows, and other details of the architecture of this period; but for beauty of pattern and splendour of effect this English shoe of the middle ages is "beyond

all Greek, beyond all Roman fame," for their sandals and shoes have not half "the glory of regality contained in this one specimen." The fifth figure inthe same plate is simpler in design but not less striking in effect, being coloured (as the previous one is) solid black, the red hose adding considerably to its effect. No. 6, is still more peculiar and is cut all over into a geometric pattern, and with a fondness for quaint display in dress peculiar to those times, the left shoe is black and the stocking blue, the other leg of the same figure being clothed in a black stocking and a white shoe. The form of this latter one is that usually worn by persons of all classes, of course omitting the elaborate ornament. The shoe was cut very low over the instep, the heel being entirely covered, and a band fastened by a small buckle or button passing round the ancle secured it to the foot.

The boots and shoes worn during the fourteenth century, were of peculiar form, and the toes which were lengthened to a point, turned inward or outward according to the taste of the wearer. In the reign

of Richard II., they became immensely long, so that it was asserted they were chained to the knee of the wearer, in order to allow him to walk about with ease and freedom. It was of course only the nobility who could thus inconvenience themselves, and it might have been adopted by them as a distinction; still very pointed toes were worn by all who could afford to be fashionable. The cut here given exhibits the sole of a shoe of this period, from an actual spe

cimen in the possession of C. Roach Smith, F.S.A. and was discovered in the neighbourhood of Whitefriars, in digging deep under ground into what must have originally been a receptacle for rubbish, among which these old shoes had been thrown, and they are probably the only things of the kind now in exist

ence.

Two specimens of boots of the time of Edward IV., are here given to show their general form at that

period. The first is copied from the Royal M.S., No. 15, E. 6, and is of black leather, with a long up

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turned toe; the top of the boot is of lighter leather, and thus it bears a resemblance to the top-boots of a later age, of which it may be considered as the prototype. The other boot from a print dated 1515, is more curious, the top of the boot is turned down and the entire centre opens from the top, to the instep, and is drawn together by laces or ties across the leg, so that it bears considerable resemblance in this point to the Cothurnus of the ancients.

Fashion ran at this time from one extreme to the other, and the shoes which were at one time as

lengthy at the toe as to be inconvenient, now became as absurdly broad, and it was made the subject of sumptuary laws to restrain both extremes. Thus Edward IV. enacted that any shoemaker who made for unprivileged persons (the nobility being exempted) any shoes or boots, the toes of which exceeded two nches in length, should forfeit twenty shillings, one noble to be paid to the king, another to the cordwainers of London, and the third to the chamber of London. This only had the effect of widening the toes, and Paradin says that they were then so very broad as to exceed the measure of a good foot. This continued until the reign of Mary, who by a proclamation prohibited their being worn wider at the toe than six inches.