BOOTS AND SHOES

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 February 1937, Page 10

BOOTS AND SHOES

•HISTORY OF FOOTWEAR Early man wore a . rough covering of rawhide to protect his feet, and after this the first constructed • foot covering was undoubtedly the sandal. Great attention was paid to shoes by the early. Romans,, among whom the shoemaker- was called “sator.” Some of the shoes were so beautifully made and so highly valued that many of the wealthier were buried with their shoes upon their feet. The nailed shoe of the Roman soldier , (caliga) and the laced sandal of the aristocrat have, in recent years, been unearthed from the' soil of ancient London, states the “Sydney Morning Herald.” ■ In England the word boot was taken from the Welsh' “botes,” which means shoes. The craft seems to have made its first headway in England about the time of the Norman Conquest. In the tenth century, wooden shoes which were something like the pres-ent-day goloshes, were made in England; and largely worn by the gently and the clergy. To ensure their lightness, they were constructed of aspen, and sometimes had a small iron ring on the sole to prevent them slipping. In the reign of Henry VIII, shoes were made very broad. The King had to have them so on account of his gouty feet, and; after the manner of the present day, because they were

■ favoured by Royalty, they immediately i became very fashionable, but the i fashion was carried to such extreme i lengths that in the reign of Mary the . law regulated the width across the -Hoes to six inches. Then there' came ■‘a craze for slippers, which reached its height in the reign of Charles I. ■ In the Stuart and Tudor periods, the • shoemaker was allowed to let his imagination run riot on fanciful de- ’ corations for shoes, and the wealthy ‘ had them of silk and velvet and col- ! or-red leather, frequently embroidered with jewels. , Queen Elizabeth had a vpry expensive taste in shoes, and boots, which .she possessed in large numbers, for, in those halcyon days, a monarch could always afford to indulge in any | extravagant taste. Probably the most ridiculous shoes ,in history were the Polish shoes. They were so fashioned that they curved right up to the knees, where they were fastened with either silk or gold. '