The shape of the sole of the shoes, at this time, may be seen from the cut here given of one found in a tomb of the period, and called that of St. Swithin, in Winchester cathedral. The shoe is engraved in

Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, and the person who discovered it in the tomb thus describes it: He says, "The legs of the wearer were enclosed in leathern boots or gaiters sewed with neatness, the thread was still to be seen. The soles were small and round, rather worn, and of what would be called an elegant shape at present; pointed at the toe and very narrow, and were made and fitted to each foot. I have sent the pattern of one of the soles, drawn by tracing it with a pencil from the original itself, which I have in my possession." Gough engraves the shoe of the natural size in his work, the measurements being ten inches in length from toe to heel, and three

inches across the broadest part of the instep. It will be seen that they are as perfectly "right and left," as any boots of the present day; but as we have already shown, this is a fashion of the most remote antiquity. As these boots are at least as old as the time of John, Shakspere's description in his dramatised history of that sovereign, of the tailor, who, eager to acquaint his friend, the smith, of the prodigies the skies had just exhibited, and whom Hubert saw

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Standing in slippers which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet."

is strictly accurate; yet half a century ago, this passage was adjudged to be one of the many proofs of Shakspere's ignorance or carelessness.

Dr. Johnson,

ignorant himself of the truth in this point, but yet like all critics, determined to pass his verdict, makes himself supremely absurd, by saying in a note to this passage, with ridiculous solemnity, "Shakspere seems to have confounded the man's shoes with his gloves. He that is frighted or hurried may put his hand into the wrong glove, but either shoe will equally

admit either foot. The author seems to be disturbed

by the disorder which he describes."

In the "Art Union," a journal devoted to the fine arts, are a series of notices of the various forms of boots and shoes in this country, by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A., from which we may borrow the description of the elegant coverings for the feet in use in the reigns of the three first Edwards. Boots buttoned up the leg, or shoes buttoned up the centre, or secured like the Norman shoe in the second figure of the first cut given in this chapter, were common in the days of Edward I. and II. The splendid reign of the third Edward, says Mr. Fairholt, extending over half a century of national greatness, was remarkable for the variety and luxury, as well as the elegance of its costume; and this may be considered as the most glorious era in the annals of "the gentle craft," as the trade of shoemaking was anciently termed. Shoes and boots of the most sumptuous description are now to be met with in contemporary paintings, sculptures, and illuminated manuscripts. The boot and shoe here engraved from the Arundel M.S.,