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THE
BOOK OF THE FEET:
A
HISTORY OF BOOTS AND SHOES,
With Illustrations
OF THE
FASHIONS OF THE EGYPTIANS, HEBREWS, PERSIANS, GREEKS, AND
ROMANS, AND THE PREVAILING STYLE THROUGHOUT EUROPE,
DURING THE MIDDLE AGES, DOWN TO THE PRESENT PERIOD;
ALSO,
HINTS TO LAST-MAKERS, AND REMEDIES FOR CORNS, ETC.
BY J. SPARKES HALL,
Patent-Elastic-Boot Maker to her Majesty the Queen, the Queen Dowager,
and the Queen of the Belgians.
FROM THE SECOND LONDON EDITION,
WITH A HISTORY OF BOOTS AND SHOES IN THE UNITED STATES,
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF EMINENT SHOEMAKERS,
AND CRISPIN ANECDOTES.
NEW YORK:
WILLIAM H. GRAHAM, TRIBUNE BUILDINGS,
J. S. REDFIELD, CLINTON HALL.
1847.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847,
BY J. S. REDFIELD,
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, in
and for the Southern District of New York.
STEREOTYPED BY REDFIELD & SAVAGE,
13 Chambers Street, N. Y.
AMERICAN PREFACE.
The work embraced in the following pages, which has been received with
great favor in England, in the fashionable circles, as well as by the
trade, the publisher has great confidence will prove attractive and
interesting to the American public.
“I have given,” says Mr. Hall, in his preface to the English edition,
“the result of my experience, derived from an intimate practical
acquaintance with this department of trade for twenty years, and have
endeavored to correct much that was bad in form and material, and I
trust have not only found fault in many instances with past and present
fashions, but have also enforced and provided the remedy. The
illustrations of the ancient fashions are all taken from the highest
authorities, and I believe may be relied on as historical.”
In addition to the matter in the second London edition, we have
subjoined a History of Boots and Shoes in the United States, showing the
changes of fashion in this indispensable article of dress; also,
numerous biographical sketches of individuals, who, having learned the
art of shoemaking, have afterward distinguished themselves by their
genius, talents, or worth, and occupied eminent stations among their
fellow-men.
The frequency of the development of literary talent among shoemakers has
often been remarked. Their occupation, being a sedentary and
comparatively noiseless one, may be considered as more favorable than
some others to meditation; but perhaps its literary productiveness has
arisen quite as much from the circumstance of its being a trade of light
labor, and therefore resorted to, in preference to most others, by
persons in humble life who are conscious of more mental talent than
bodily strength.
To add further to the interest of this volume, we have selected a few
pages of anecdotes, and other miscellaneous matters, tending to
elucidate this History and account of the “gentle craft;” the members
of which may well be proud of such names as their Sherman, Drew,
Bloomfield, Gifford, Lee, Sheffey, Worcester, and others, whose memory
will long live, as having adorned the various pursuits in which they
became eminent.
While this work will prove useful and instructive as presenting, in the
biographical sketches, a body of examples showing, how the most
unpropitious circumstances have been unable to subdue an ardent desire
for the acquisition of knowledge, and the cultivation of a refined
taste; the lover of antiquities, and the votary of fashion, will here
have their curiosity gratified, in a history of the varied changes which
have taken place in an important article of dress, from the pyramidal
ages of ancient Egypt, long ere Greece or Rome occupied a space in
history, to the present time, when the beauty, taste, and convenience,
of modern boots and shoes, combine to establish the superiority of the
cordwainers of Europe and America, compared with their predecessors of
any nation or age.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAP. I.--On the most ancient Covering of the Feet 7
CHAP. II.--The History of Boots and Shoes in England 30
CHAP. III.--On the more modern Forms of foreign Boots
and Shoes 58
CHAP. IV.--Commencement of the Trade 75
CHAP. V.--The Structure of the Human Foot, making
Lasts, Curing Corns, etc. 96
CHAP. VI.--The Poetry of the Feet, etc. 112
CHAP. VII.--History of Boots and Shoes in the United
States 135
CHAP. VIII.--Biographical Sketches of Eminent Shoemakers 147
Roger Sherman, 147.--Daniel Sheffey, 155.--Gideon
Lee, 156.--Samuel Drew, 163.--Robert Bloomfield,
176.--Nathaniel Bloomfield, 181.--William Gifford,
183.--Noah Worcester, 192.--James Lackington, 196.--Joseph
Pendrell, 198.--Thomas Holcroft, 199.--Rev.
William Carey, D. D., 200.--George Fox, 202.--Rev.
James Nichol, 202.--Rev. William Huntington, 203.
CHAP. IX.--Crispin Anecdotes, etc. 204
Patron Saints of Shoemakers.--St. Crispin’s Day.--Cordwainers’
Hall.--Incorporated Shoemakers.--Proverbs.--Anecdotes.
HISTORY OF BOOTS AND SHOES.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE MOST ANCIENT COVERINGS FOR THE FEET.
If we investigate the monuments of the remotest nations of antiquity, we
shall find that the earliest form of protection for the feet, partook of
the nature of sandals. The most ancient representations we possess of
scenes in ordinary life, are the sculptures and paintings of early
Egypt, and these the investigations of travelled scholars from most
modern civilized countries have, by their descriptions and delineations,
made familiar to us, so that the habits and manners, as well as the
costume of this ancient people, have been handed down to the present
time, by the work of their own hands, with so vivid a truthfulness, that
we feel as conversant with their domestic manners and customs, as with
those of any modern nation to which the book of the traveller would
introduce us. Not only do their pictured relics remain to give us an
insight into their mode of life, but a vast quantity of articles of all
kinds, from the tools of the workmen, to the elegant fabrics which once
decorated the boudoir of the fair ladies of Memphis and Carnac three
thousand years ago, are treasured up in the museums, both public and
private, of this and other countries.
With these materials, it is in no wise difficult to carry our history of
shoemaking back to the earliest times, and even to look upon the
shoemaker at his work, in the early days of Thothmes the third, who
ascended the throne of Egypt, according to Wilkinson, 1495 years before
Christ, and during whose reign, the Exodus of the Israelites occurred.
The first of our plates contains a copy of this very curious painting,
as it existed upon the walls of Thebes, when the Italian scholar
Rossellini copied it for his great work on Egypt. The shoemakers are
both seated upon low stools (real specimens of such articles may be seen
in the British Museum), and are both busily employed, in the formation
of the sandals then usually worn in Egypt, the first workman is piercing
with his awl the leather thong, at the side of the sole, through which
the straps were passed, which secured the sandal to the foot;
[Illustration]
before him is a low sloping bench, one end of which rests upon the
ground; his fellow-workman is equally busy, sewing a shoe, and
tightening the thong with his teeth, a primitive mode of working which
is occasionally indulged in at the present day. Above their heads is a
goodly row of sandals, probably so placed, to attract a passing
customer; the shops in the East being then, as now, entirely open and
exposed to every one who passed. As the ancient Egyptian artists knew
nothing of perspective, the tools of the workmen that lie around, are
here represented above them: they bear, in some instances, a resemblance
to those used in the present day; the central instrument, above the man
who pierces the tie of the sandal, having the precise shape of the
shoemaker’s awl still in use, so very unchanging are articles of
utility. In the same manner, the semicircular knife used by the ancient
Egyptians three or four thousand years ago, is precisely similar to that
of our modern curriers, and is thus represented in a painting at
Thebes, of that remote antiquity. The workman, it will be noticed, cuts
the leather upon a sloping bench, exactly like that of the shoemaker
already engraved.
The warmth and mildness of the East, rendered a close, warm shoe
unnecessary; and, indeed, in the present day, they partake there more of
the character of slippers; and the foot, thus unconfined by tight shoes,
and always free in its motion, retained its full power and pliability:
and the custom, still retained in the East, of holding a strap of
leather, or other substance, between the toes, is represented in the
Theban paintings; the foot thus becoming a useful second to the hand.
Many specimens of the shoes and sandals of the ancient Egyptians, may be
seen in our national museum. Wilkinson, in his work on the “Manners and
Customs” of this people says, “Ladies and men of rank paid great
attention to the beauty of their sandals: but on some occasions, those
of the middle classes who were in the habit of wearing them, preferred
walking barefooted; and in religious ceremonies, the priests frequently
took them off while performing their duties in the temple.”
The sandals varied slightly in form; those worn by the upper classes,
and by women, were usually pointed and turned up at the end, like our
skates, and the Eastern slippers of the present day. Some had a sharp
flat point, others were nearly round. They were made of a sort of woven
or interlaced work, of palm leaves and papyrus stalks, or other similar
materials; sometimes of leather, and were frequently lined within with
cloth, on which the figure of a captive was painted; that humiliating
position being thought suitable to the enemies of their country, whom
they hated and despised, an idea agreeing perfectly with the expression
which so often occurs in the hieroglyphic legends, accompanying a king’s
name, where his valor and virtues are recorded on the sculptures: “you
have trodden the impure Gentiles under your powerful feet.”
The example selected for pl. I., fig. 1, is in the British Museum,
beneath the sandal of a mummy of Harsontiotf; and the captive figure is
evidently, from feature and costume, a Jew: it thus becomes a curious
illustration of scripture history.
Upon the same plate, figs. 3 and 4 delineate two fine examples of
sandals formed as above described, of the leaf of the palm. They were
brought from Egypt by the late Mr. Salt, consul-general, and formed part
of the collection sold in London, after his death, and are now in the
British Museum. They are very different to each other in their
construction, and are of that kind worn by the poorer classes; flat
slices of the palm leaf, which lap over each other in the centre, form
the sole of fig. 2, and a double band of twisted leaves secures and
strengthens the edge; a thong of the strong fibres of the same plant is
affixed to each side of the instep, and was secured round the foot. The
other (fig. 3) is more elaborately platted, and has a softer look; it
must in fact have been as a pad to the foot, exceedingly light and
agreeable in the arid climate inhabited by the people for whom such
sandals were constructed; the knot at each side to which the thong was
affixed, still remains.
[Illustration]
The sandals with curved toes, alluded to above, and which frequently
appear upon Egyptian sculpture, and generally upon the feet of the
superior classes, are exhibited in the woodcut here given: and in the
Berlin museum, one is preserved of precisely similar form, which has
been engraved by Wilkinson, and is here copied, pl. I., fig. 1. It is
particularly curious, as showing how such sandals were held upon the
feet, the thong which crosses the instep being connected with another,
passing over the top of the foot and secured to the sole, between the
great toe and that next to it, so that the sole was held firmly, however
the foot moved, and yet it allowed the sandal to be cast off at
pleasure.
Wilkinson says that “shoes or low boots, were also common in Egypt, but
these I believe to have been of late date, and to have belonged to
Greeks; for since no persons are represented in the paintings wearing
them, except foreigners, we may conclude they were not adopted by the
Egyptians, at least in a Pharaonic age. They were of leather, generally
of green color, laced in front by thongs, which passed through small
loops on either side; and were principally used, as in Greece and
Etruria, by women.”
One of the close-laced shoes is given in pl. I., fig. 4, from a specimen
in the British museum. It embraces the foot closely, and has a thong or
two over the instep, for drawing it tightly over the foot, something
like the half-boot of the present day. The sole and upper leather are
all in one piece, sewn up the back and down the front of the foot; a
mode of construction practised in England, as late as the fourteenth
century.
The elegantly-ornamented boot here given, is copied from a Theban
painting, and is worn by a gayly-dressed youth from one of the
countries bordering on Egypt: it reaches very high, and is a remarkable
specimen of the taste for decoration, which thus early began to be
displayed upon this article of apparel.
[Illustration]
In Sacred Writ are many early notices of shoes, when Moses exhorts the
Jews to obedience (Deut. ch. xxix.), he exclaims, “Your clothes are not
waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.” In the
book of Ruth (chap. iv.) we have a curious instance of the important
part performed by the shoe in the ancient days of Israel, in sealing any
important business: “Now this was the manner in former time in Israel,
concerning redeeming, and concerning changing, for to confirm all
things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and
this was a testimony in Israel.” Ruth, and all the property of three
other persons, are given over to Boaz, by the act of the next kinsman,
who gives to him his shoe in the presence of witnesses. The ancient law
compelled the eldest brother, or nearest kinsman by her late husband’s
side, to marry a widow, if her husband died childless. The law of Moses
provided an alternative, easy in itself, but attended with some degree
of ignominy. The woman was in public court to take off his shoe, spit
before his face, saying, “so shall it be done unto that man that will
not build up his brother’s house:” and probably, the fact of this
refusal was stated in the genealogical registers in connexion with his
name; which is probably what is meant by his “name shall be called in
Israel, the house of him that hath his shoe loosed.” (Deut. xxv.) The
editor of Knight’s Pictorial Bible, who notices these curious laws, also
adds that the use of the shoe in the transactions with Boaz, are
perfectly intelligible; the taking off the shoe, denoting the
relinquishment of the right, and the dissolution of the obligation in
the one instance, and its transfer in the other. The shoe is regarded as
constituting possession, nor is this idea unknown to ourselves, in being
conveyed in the homely proverbial expression by which one man is said to
“stand in the shoes of another,” and the vulgar idea of “throwing an old
shoe after you for luck,” is typical of a wish, that temporal gifts or
good fortune may follow you. The author last quoted says, that even at
the present time, the use of the shoe as a token of right or occupancy,
may be traced very extensively in the East; and however various and
dissimilar the instances may seem at first view, the leading idea may be
still detected in all. Thus among the Bedouins, when a man permits his
cousin to marry another, or when a husband divorces his runaway wife, he
usually says, “She was my slipper, I have cast her off.” (Burckhardt’s
“Bedouins,” p. 65.) Sir F. Henniker, in speaking of the difficulty he
had in persuading the natives to descend into the crocodile mummy pits,
in consequence of some men having lost their lives there, says: “Our
guides, as if preparing for certain death, took leave of their children;
the father took the turban from his own head, and put it upon that of
his son; or _put him in his place_, by giving him _his shoes_, ‘a dead
man’s shoes.’” In western Asia, slippers left at the door of an
apartment, denote that the master or mistress is engaged, and no one
ventures on intrusion, not even a husband, though the apartment be his
wife’s. Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet, speaking of the termagants of
Benares, say, “If domestic or other business calls off one of the
combatants before the affair is duly settled, she coolly thrusts _her
shoe_ beneath her basket, and leaves both upon the spot, to signify
that she is not satisfied;” meaning to denote by leaving her shoe, that
she kept possession of the ground and the argument during her
unavoidable absence.
From all these instances, it would appear that this employment of the
shoe, may, in some respects, be considered analogous to that which
prevailed in the middle ages, of giving a glove as a token of
investiture, when bestowing lands and dignities.
It should be observed that the same Hebrew word (_naal_), signifies both
a sandal and a shoe, although always rendered shoe in our translation of
the Old Testament. Although the shoe is mentioned in Genesis and other
books of the Bible, little concerning its form or manufacture can be
gleaned--that it was an article of common use among the ancient
Israelites, we may infer from the passage in Genesis, chap. xiv., verse
23, the first mention we have of this article, where Abraham makes oath
to the king of Sodom “that he will not take from a thread even to a
shoe-latchet,” thus assuming its common character.
The Gibeonites (Josh. ix. 5-13) “came with old shoes and clouted
[mended] upon their feet”--the better to practise their deceit; and
therefore they said, “Our shoes are become old by reason of the very
long journey.”
Isaiah “walked three years naked and barefoot:” he went for this long
period without shoes, contrary to the custom of the people, and as “a
wonder unto Egypt and Ethiopia.”
That it became an article of refinement and luxury, is evident from the
many other notices given; and the Jewish ladies seem to have been very
particular about their sandals: thus we are told, in the Apocryphal book
of Judith, although Holofernes was attracted by the general richness of
her dress and personal ornaments, yet it was “her sandals ravished his
eyes:” and the bride in Solomon’s Song is met with the exclamation, “How
beautiful are thy feet with sandals, O prince’s daughter!”
The ancient bas-reliefs at Persepolis, and the neighborhood of Babylon,
second only in their antiquity and interest to those of Egypt, furnish
us with examples of the boots and shoes of the Persian kings, their
nobles, and attendants; and they were executed, as appears from
historical, as well as internal evidence, in the days of Xerxes and
Darius.
From these sources, we here select the three following specimens. No. 1
is a half-boot, reaching considerably above the ankle; and it is worn
by
[Illustration:
No. 1. No. 2. No. 3.
]
the attendant who has charge of a chariot, upon a bas-relief now in the
British museum, brought from Persepolis by Sir R. Ker Porter, by whom it
was first engraved and described in his interesting volumes of travels
in that district. No. 2, also from Persepolis, and engraved in the work
just quoted, delineates another kind of boot, or high shoe, reaching
only to the ankle, round which it is secured by a band, and tied in
front in a knot, the two ends of the band hanging beneath it. This shoe
is very common upon the feet of these figures, and is generally worn by
soldiers or the upper classes: the attendants or councillors round the
throne of these early sovereigns, frequently wear such shoes. No. 3,
seen upon the feet of personages in the same rank of life, is here
copied from a Persepolitan bas-relief, representing a soldier in full
costume. It is a remarkably interesting example, as it very clearly
shows the transition state of this article of dress, being something
between a shoe and a sandal: in fact, a shoe may be considered as a
covered sandal; and, in the instance before us, the part we now term
“upper leather” consists of little more than the lacings of the sandals,
rendered much broader than usual, and fastened by buttons along the top
of the foot. The shoe is thus rendered peculiarly flexible, as the
openings over the instep allow of the freest movement. Such were the
forms of the earliest shoes.
[Illustration]
Close boots reaching nearly to the knee where they are met by a wide
trowser, are not uncommon upon these sculptures, being precisely the
same in shape and appearance as those worn by the modern Cossacks.
Indeed, there is nothing in the way of boots that may not be found upon
the existing monuments of early nations, precisely resembling the modern
ones. The little figure here given might pass for a copy of the boots
worn by one of the soldiers of King William the Third’s army, and would
not be unworthy of uncle Toby himself, yet it is carefully copied from a
most ancient specimen of Etruscan sculpture, in the possession of
Inghirami, who has engraved it in his learned work the “Monumenti
Etruschi;” the original represents an augur, or priest, whose chief duty
was to report and explain supernatural signs.
With the ancient Greeks and Romans, the coverings for the feet assumed
their most elegant forms; yet in no instance does the comfort of the
wearer appear to have been sacrificed, or the natural play of the foot
interfered with--_that_ appears to have been especially reserved for
“march-of-intellect” days. Vegetable sandals, termed Baxa, or Baxea,
were worn by the lower classes, and as a symbol of their humility, by
the philosophers and priests. Apuleius describes a young priest as
wearing sandals of palm; they were no doubt similar in construction to
the Egyptian ones, of which we have already given specimens, and which
were part of the required and characteristic dress of the Egyptian
priesthood. Such vegetable sandals were, however, occasionally decorated
with ornaments to a considerable extent, and they then became expensive.
The making of them in all their variety, was the business of a class of
men called Baxearii; and these with the Solearii (or makers of the
simplest kind of sandal worn, consisting of a sole with little more to
fasten it to the foot than a strap across the instep) constituted a
corporation or college of Rome.
The solea were generally worn by the higher classes only, for lightness
and convenience, in the house; the shoes (calceus) being worn out of
doors. The soccus was the intermediate covering for the foot, being
something between the solea and the calceus; it was, in fact, precisely
like the modern slipper, and could be cast off at pleasure, as it did
not fit closely, and was secured by no tie. This, like the solea and
crepida, was worn by the lower classes and country people; and hence,
the comedians wore such cheap and common coverings for the feet, to
contrast with the cothurnus or buskin of the tragedians, which they
assumed, as it was adapted to be part of a grand and stately attire.
Hence the term applied to theatrical performers--“brethren of the sock
and buskin,” and as this distinction is both ancient and curious,
specimens of both are here given from antique authorities. The side and
front views of the sock (Nos. 1, 2) are copied from a painting of a
buffoon, who is dancing in loose yellow slippers, one of the commonest
colors in which the leather used for their construction was dyed. Such
slippers were made to
[Illustration:
No. 1. No. 3. No. 2.
]
fit both feet indifferently, but the more finished boots and shoes were
made for one foot only from the earliest period. The cothurnus (fig. 3)
was a boot of the highest kind, reaching above the calf of the leg, and
sometimes as far as the knee. It was laced as the boots of the ancients
always were, down the front, the object of such an arrangement being to
make them fit the leg as closely as possible, and the skin of which they
were made was dyed purple, and other gay colors; the head and paws of
the wild animal were sometimes allowed to hang around the leg from the
upper part of the cothurnus, to which it formed a graceful addition; an
example is given upon our 2d plate, fig. 1, which is a side-view of such
an ornamented boot, decorated all over with a pattern like the Grecian
volute.
The sole of the cothurnus was of the ordinary thickness in general, but
it was occasionally made much thicker by the insertion of slices of
cork when the wearer wished to add to his height, and thus the Athenian
tragedians, who assumed this boot as the most dignified of coverings for
the feet, had the soles made unusually thick, in order that it might add
to the magnitude and dignity of their whole appearance.
The unchanging nature of a commodious fashion capable of adoption by the
lower classes, may be well illustrated by fig. 2, plate II., which
delineates the shoe or sandal worn by the rustics of ancient Rome. It is
formed of a skin turned over the foot, and secured by thongs passing
through the sides, and over the toe, crossing each other over the
instep, and secured firmly round the ankle. Any person familiar with the
prints of Pinelli, pictures of the modern brigands of the Abruzzi, or
the models of the latter worthies in terra-cotta, to be met with in most
curiosity-shops, will at once recognise those they wear as being of the
same form. The traveller who has visited modern Rome, will also remember
to have seen them on the feet of the peasantry who traverse the Pontine
marshes; and the older Irish, and the comparatively modern Highlander,
both wore similar ones; they were formed of the skin of the cow or deer,
with the hair on them, and were held on the feet by
[Illustration: Pl. 2.]
leather thongs. They were the simplest and warmest kind of foot-covering
to be obtained, when every man was his own shoemaker.
There was a form of shoe worn at this early time, in which the toes were
entirely uncovered, and of which an example is given in plate II., fig.
3. It is copied from a marble foot in the British museum. This shoe
appears to be made of a pliable leather, which fits closely to the foot,
for it was considered as a mark of rusticity to wear shoes larger than
the foot, or which fitted in a loose and slovenly manner. The toes in
this instance are left perfectly free; the upper leather is secured
round the ankle by a tie, while a thong, ornamented by a stud in its
centre, passing over the instep, and between the great and second toes,
is secured to the sole in the manner of a sandal. In order that the
ankle-bone should not be pressed on or incommoded in walking, the
leather is sloped away, and rises around it to a point at the back of
the leg.
None but such as had served the office of edile were allowed to wear
shoes of a red color, which we may therefore infer to have been a
favorite color for shoes, as it appears to have been among the Hebrews,
and as it is still in western Asia. The Roman senators wore shoes or
buskins of a black color, with a crescent of gold or silver on the top
of the foot. The emperor Aurelian forbade men to wear red, yellow,
white, or green shoes, permitting them to be worn by women only, and
Heliogabalus forbade women to wear gold or precious stones in their
shoes, a fact which will aid us in understanding the sort of decoration
indulged in by the earliest Hebrew women, of whose example Judith may be
quoted as an instance, to which we have already referred.
The Roman soldiers generally wore a simple form of sandal similar to the
example given in plate II., fig. 4, and which is a solea fastened by
thongs; yet they, in the progress of riches and luxury, went with the
times and merged into foppery, so that Philopoemon, in recommending
soldiers to give more attention to their warlike accoutrements than to
their common dress, advises them to be less nice about their shoes and
sandals, and more careful in observing that their greaves were kept
bright and fitted well to their legs. When about to attack a hill-fort
or go on rugged marches, they wore a sandal shod with spikes similar to
that in plate II., fig. 5, and at other times they had soles covered
with large clumsy nails like those of fig. 6, which exhibits the sole of
a Roman soldier’s sandal, covered with nails, and which was discovered
in London some few years ago; it is copied from an engraving in the
Archæological album, and the shoe itself, which forms fig. 7, shows the
length of these nails, and the way in which the upper leather was
constructed of the sandal form, like those of the Persepolitan figures
already alluded to. The Greeks and Romans used shoes of this kind as
frequently as the early Persians, and in fig. 7, we have an example of
such a combination of sandal and shoe as they wore, the upper leather
being cut into a series of thongs, through which passes a broad band of
leather, which turns not inelegantly round the upper part of the foot,
and is secured by passing many times round the ankle and above it, where
it is buckled or tied.
The Roman shoes then had various names, and were distinct badges of the
position in society held by the wearer. The solea, crepida, pero, and
soccus, belonged to the lower classes, the laborers and rustics, the
caliga was principally worn by soldiers, and the cothurnus by
tragedians, hunters, and horsemen, as well as by the nobles of the
country.
The latter kind of boot, in form and color, as we have already hinted,
was indicative of rank or office. Those worn by senators we have
noticed, and it was a joke in ancient Rome against a man who owed
respect solely to the accident of birth or fortune, that his nobility
was in his heels. The boots of the emperors were frequently richly
decorated, and the patterns still existing upon marble statues, show
that they were ornamented in the most elaborate manner. A specimen from
the noble statue of Hadrian in the British museum, forms fig. 8, of our
plate, and it is impossible to conceive anything of the kind more
elegant and tasteful in its decorations. Real gems and gold were
employed by some of the Roman emperors to decorate their boots, and
Heliogabalus wore exquisite cameos on his boots and shoes. Fig. 9, is a
lower kind of boot, of the same make as fig. 3, but beautifully
ornamented.
The Grecian ladies, according to Hope, wore shoes or half-boots, laced
before and lined with the fur of animals of the cat tribe, whose muzzles
or claws hung down from the top.
Ocrea was the name this boot got among the Romans; “_Ocreas verdente
puella_,” (Juv. vi. sat.); which Dryden, ridiculously enough, translated
“Spanish leather boots,” a term of his own time, forced to do service
sixteen hundred years before.
The barbarous nations with whom the Romans held war, are upon the
bas-reliefs of their conquerors, represented in close shoes or
half-boots. Thus the Dacians wear the shoe represented in fig. 10, which
laced across the instep, and was secured around the ankle with a band
and ornamental button or stud. The Gauls wear the shoe given below, of
the same form as that worn by our native ancestors when Julius Cæsar
made his descent upon the British islands.
[Illustration]