I. ON ANCIENT SHOES, AS USED IN THIS AND OTHEB PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. By Joseph Mayer, Esq., Hon. Curator. In the few remarks that I propose to make

Transcription

1 117 I. ON ANCIENT SHOES, AS USED IN THIS AND OTHEB PARTS OF THE COUNTRY. By Joseph Mayer, Esq., Hon. Curator. In the few remarks that I propose to make on Ancient Shoes, it is not my intention to refer to the many mentions of shoes made in the Scriptures, and of their early use in the countries of which the sacred writings treat, as I presume their importance is well known to you. I shall merely state that they exist at the present day in the neighbouring Isle of Man, in the same form in which they were used hy the most ancient people of whom we have any correct pictorial representations. In that Island there is a custom in observance at the present day, on the hiring of a farm servant, which has special reference to the subject we have under consideration. One of the clauses in the agreement says, " that the master shall give his servant three pairs of Shoes every year, of sufficient strength to enable him to perform his work in a proper and efficient manner," and in order to do so, the master provides the hide of a newly slain cow, and the servant placing his naked foot on the most substantial part of it, cuts from the hide, pieces sufficiently large to allow him space enough to wrap them over his toea and instep, up the sides and around the heel, that, with the aid of two narrow slips or thongs of the same hide, he may make them into Shoes called Karranes. This is accomplished in the following manner. He first cuts holes at the corners of the piece of the hide nearest the toes, and passing the thong through, pulls them together ; then crossing it over the instep, he puts the ends through two holes cut on the sides of the foot, and again crossing, passes the opposite ends into the slits on the side of the heel, and bringing them again to the top of the instep, draws the whole tight round the foot. Being thus formed into a sort of bag, he fastens them by tying sometimes as in the pair before us they are sewn up in front and at the heel.

2 118 The earliest specimen we have of this form of Shoe, is seen on a has relief brought from Persepolis, by Sir Robert Ker Porter, and now in the British Museum. The Shoes of this figure have all the appearance of being made in the same manner as those now used in the Isle of Man. Again we meet with the same kind of Shoe, worn by the Dacian prisoners, on the column of Trajan, at Rome : and the Britons wore the same Shoe when Julius Ceesar first invaded our shores. Diodorus Siculus in his description of the British chief, before the entrance of the Romans, says, " on the feet were either the Esgidiau, Shoes," so called from " Esci" protecting from hurt, similar to the Brogues of the Irish, which were made of raw cow hides, and had the hair turned outward and coming up to the ancles; " or the Bwutais, or Butis, the modern Buskin." I have seen the same primitive Shoe worn by the Inhabitants of the Abruzzi mountains, as well as at Tivoli, near Rome, where the peasants come to the Festa of the Madonna, wearing them of the same character as well also in Calabria where they are called Curranes, and only differ from the Karranes of the Isle of Man in wanting the cover part for the heel, thereby being more like Slippers, as the name denotes, "rough Shoes." In the transactions of the lona Club there is a printed copy of a letter from John Elder, a Highland Priest, to Henry VIII, in which he says " we of all people can tolerate colde, going alwaies bare leggid, therefor the tendir gentlemen of Scotland call us ' red shankes;' we goe a hunting, and after that we have slaine the redd deir, we flay off the skyne, and setting off our foot on the inside thereof, we play the Sutter, i. e. the Shoemaker, measuringe so much thereof as shall retche up to our ancklers, pryckinge the upper part thereof with holes that the water may repas when it enters, and streuched up with a thwange of the same mentioned, above our said ancklers." I might adduce many instances to corroborate the fact of the early form of these Shoes, and their almost universal wear, if it were necessary, but I shall confine myself to the two other specimens which are before you, the first of which

3 119 ate the Shoes worn by Lord Byron at the time of his death at Missolonghi, and now in my possession. This Shoe only differs from the Manx Karrane, in being fastened with a clasp round the ancle, instead of with a thong. The other pair were made for, and worn during a recent tour in Lapland, by Charles Robin, Esq., of Grove Hill, West Kirby, to whose kindness I am indebted for permission to exhibit them. They have the peculiarity of being of the form of what are called Wellington Boots, but having the lower part of one piece, like the Karranes, with an extra upper leather attached to them. Let me now show you a pair of Shoes recently found whilst forming a drain about seven feet below the surface of a bog, on Bowness Flow, by George Stewart, Esq., of Port Carlisle, to whom I am indebted for the opportunity of exhibiting and sketching them. They are remarkable for the piercing on the sides, and the soles have,

4 120 been covered with large hob nails, the marks of which are still retained, although the iron of which they were made is completely rusted and lost. They are of very elegant form, made right and left, and evidently belonged to a tall man, as they measure 10J inches long, by 3 inches across the widest part. In the left shoe remains part of the thong; they have had insoles and welts, and down the centre of the sole, between the inner and outer soles, runs a piece of leather about inch wide, which is passed under and over the pieces or bedding, which fill up the space between them, but for what purpose I have not been able to discover.* Meyrick says " the Shoes of the Gauls, according to Montfaugon, had two slits down the front, whereas, the Saxon Shoe had only one; but Shoes have been dug up in England, made of one piece of untanned leather, slit in several places, in each of which, holes were made through which a thong passed. This being drawn tight, fastened them round the foot as a purse." To this description these seem to answer, and, therefore, I have thought them to belong to the Eoman or Anglo-Roman period of our History. * Since writing the above, I have visited the site of the Eoman Baths recently discovered at Segontium, near Caernarvon, in Wales, and amongst the numerous interesting relics found during the excavations, now deposited in the Town Museum, I saw a tile made of Terra-cotta, about fifteen inches long by ten inches wide, on which is the impression of a female or child's foot made before the tile was burned, whilst the clay was in a soft state with the marks of the nails of the shoes, exactly corresponding with those on the one found in Bowness Flow. This which is shewn in the above.cut certainly belongs to the period of the Eoman possession of Britain.

5 121 On recently visiting the Museum of Charles Roach Smith, Esq., in London, (-which is perhaps the most interesting private collection in Europe,) I was much struck with a Sandal, lately found whilst dredging in the Eiver Thames. Mr. Smith is of opinion it is Romano-British, and with his usual kindness and love of usefulness, has, permitted me to make a sketch of it for our proceedings, c.as. although he has not yet read his paper upon it. This he is about to do at an early meeting of the" Archfeological Association of which he is Honorary Curator, when, from his great knowledge on these subjects, we may expect much valuable information. I cannot conclude these remarks without hoping that those who possess similar reliques, will either present them to the Society, or forward them for exhibition, as we are deplorably deficient in knowledge of the costume of our own country, even at a recent period of time; and I believe there does not exist at the present day, any (either, public or private) collection of the costume of the British Isles. (In addition to the Shoes mentioned in this paper, a beautiful pair of high-heeled shoes were exhibited by J. T, Pownall, Esq.) II. ON THE READING OF THE LANCASTER RUNIC INSCRIPTION. By J. Just, Esq., of Bury. We may consider it as a general rule, that when any language contains within itself names for its own alphabet, and reading and writing that alphabet, and for the books, or material used for writing such a people, or nation using such a language, has had from times immemorial a native literature of its own. This may be instanced in the Latin language. As