with his arms as the Heir Apparent. Now in the fourth year of Edward, the Fourth, (1464,) he was, for the third time, elected Burgess, or Representative in Parliament, for the goodlie City of Salisburie. At the very time his illuminated picture was put up in the window of his splendid banqueting room, he was, probably, under the suffrages of his fellow-citizens, the appointed Senator for the Borough; and, to those fellow-citizens, he may have been desirous to prove his independence, and withal, to show his indignation of petty, and personal, legislation to the neglect of the more important affairs of the State. If these were his motives, (and I ween, that they were so,) however I may respect them, I cannot wholly approve his conduct ; yet, for his apology, we must bear in mind, that it was the result of a rude, and unpolished, age. The latter Statute of Edward, the Fourth, (that of the twenty-second year of his reign,) restrictive of the lengthened shoe, appears to have been effective; but the law was now, probably, aided either by the example of the Court, or by the satiated taste of the public; yet, as one extreme does oft beget its reverse, thus was it with the fashion of the shoe, the length of which gradually abated, until it ceased to present its pointed extremity; but the toe became at last so expanded, as to cause, in the reign of Queen Mary, a proclamation to be issued, that no one should wear shoes above six inches square at the toes! In the following reign of Elizabeth, the shoe, as worn by the ladyes faire, was of very varied fashion. It is stated by Stubbs, (who wrote at that period,) that " they have corked shoes, puisnets, pantofles, and slippers, some of black velvet, some of white, some of green, and some of yellow, some of Spanish leather, and some of English, stitched with silk, and embroidered with gold, and silver, all over the foot, with other gewgaws innumerable.” "Cork shoes continued in fashion," (says Planche,)" during the greater part of the sixteenth century.". No description is handed down of these cork shoes; but, of course, that material must be regarded as restricted to the sole, and heel, or, possibly, to the latter alone. The cork shoe was, probably, invented to assist, by its elasticity, the movement of the foot. It continued into the reign of James, the First; as, in the play of "Willy Beguiled," (then printed,) the "Country Girl" is made to say, "Upon the morrow of the blessed new year, I come trip, trip, trip, over the market-hill, holding up my petticoat to the calves of my legs, to show my fine coloured stockings, and how finely I could trip it in a pair of new cork'd shoes I had bought." In addition to the cork shoe, Stubbs (in the foregoing extract) mentions puisnets, and pantofles. I do not find the puisnet any where described; but, from the port of the word, I should suspect it to be a shoe of a small, and elegant, make-a pump. The pantofle was a kind of slipper, probably, introduced from France; it was, in this country, of coeval wear with the cork shoe, and was, also, made of cork; the name itself being, originally, M M derived (according to Minshieu) from πāv, omne, and, pλλòs, suber. The pantofles were worn by both sexes; and those of the ladies were, not unusually, ornamented. The "pearl embroidered pantofle" is spoken of by Massinger, in his "Guardian," as part of the dress of Iölante. Peacham, in his "Compleat Gentleman," when describing the dress of Melpomene, the Tragic Muse, also says: "Melpomene has on her feet her high cothurn, or tragic pantofles of red velvet, and gold, beset with pearls." The puritanic Stubbs ridicules (and, in this instance, not unjustly) the use of the pantofle in the street; he asks, how they could be handsome, "when they go flap, flap, up and down in the dirt, casting the mire to the knees of the wearer?" up In the reign of Charles, the First, a singular alteration took place in the form of the shoethe high heel was then introduced; and this absurd fashion continued, more or less, in vogue for a lengthened period, during some portion of which time the shoe of the male sex was uplifted. Charles, the Second, and William, the Third, are both thus depicted; but the fashion has raged amongst the female sex even within the memory of man. The days, however, of the unnatural high-heeled shoe are gone by, it is to be hoped, never to return. Unnatural I may well say, when its bias was at variance with common sense, inasmuch as it was so with the centre of gravity, and the tottering steps of many a stately dame have sent her to an embrace with her Mother Earth. The high heel is, perhaps, the last remark able change in the form of the shoe-the last memorable epoch in its history. I do not here mean to assert, that, for the last century, or two, it has undergone no change in its form, since its fluctuations have been many, and oft. Continual changes have been rung on the round, the square, and the pointed, toe-the long, and the short, quarter, &c.; but it is time to prepare for the close of this subject-which I cannot yet quit without a notice of the shoe of the commonalty, as alluded to by Shakspeare. In his play of the "Second Part of King Henry VI." he makes Jack Cade, the leader of the rebels, thus to address his followers: "And you, that love the commoners, follow me- As would (but that they dare not) take our parts." The expression of "clouted shoon" possesses some interest; and I have little doubt, that it was strictly accordant with the days of Henry, the Sixth; but, familiarised as our great dramatist was in the ways of his time, we must regard it as certainly applicable to the times of Elizabeth. The "clouted shoon" are those, which are pieced, and patched, with thick clots of leather, and guarded, as to their soles, with the coarse, and sturdy, bob-nail, to which the appellative of clout is, also, now transferred. The word "shoon" (24) is the plural number of the Anglo-Saxon Word shoo. I have no doubt, that its use was familiar in the days of Shakspeare; and, gentle reader, I have reason to believe, that it yet survives the wreck of time. A curious, and strictly, clouted shoe is, to this day, to be seen in the Ashmolean Museum, at Oxford; and, here, I must beg leave to quote the following letter, relative to it, from the celebrated Tom Hearne, the Oxford Antiquary, to Browne Willis. This letter, also, developes the customary use of the girdle as a general carrier. "Mr. Prince told me you wanted some account of the Buckinghamshire Shoe in the Bodleian Repository. You have seen it more than once, and heard the account of it. However, for better satisfaction, I shall repeat the story, viz. that the shoe is vastly large, made up of about a thousand pieces of leather. It belonged to John Bigg, who was formerly clerk to Judge Mayne, one of the judges, that gave sentence upon K. Charles the First. He lived at Dinton in a cave under ground, had been a man of tolerable wealth, was looked upon as a pretty good scholar, and of no contemptible parts. Upon the Restoration he grew melancholy, betook himself to a recluse life, made all his other cloaths in the same manner as the shoe, lived by begging, but never asked for any thing but leather (which he would immediately nail to his cloaths), yet kept three bottles, that hung at his girdle, viz. one for strong beer, another for small beer, and the third for milk, which liquors used to be given, and brought to him, notwithstanding he never asked for them. |