the reign of Henry the Third. The dashing
young knights of the feudal times had a
great love for decorating their spurs with
real or fictitious jewels. These, however,
were holiday spurs, for tournaments, and not
for the rough usage of war. Spurs of gold
were occasionally talked about; and spurs
garnished with diamonds. During the reigns
of Henry the Fifth and Henry the Sixth,
spurs with frightfully long spiked rowels were
in fashion. They became longer and longer
until they reached the length of eight inches.
Henry the Eighth set the fashion of a closer
rowel, one somewhat like a star, less
penetrant and aggravating. During the tournaments
in the reign of Elizabeth the spurs had
frequently mottoes on the shanks. One such
had "A true knight am I," on one side, and
"Anger me and try," on the other. Ripon
was a famous spur-making town in the sixteenth
century.

There are some very odd usages respecting
spurs. Five or six years ago a party of
sappers and miners were engaged at
Peterborough on the trigonometrical survey. An
officer entered the Cathedral with his spurs
on, and was immediately beset by the
choristers, who demanded money of him for
treading the sacred floor with armed heels.
An inquiry was made of some of the
dignitaries of the Cathedral; but they did not
seem to be aware of any ground on which
the claim could be made. Nevertheless, the
boys insisted that they had right on their
side. A query relating to this subject was
some time afterwards inserted in Notes and
Queries; and this elicited much curious
information concerning what is called spur
money. In the Memorials of John Ray
occurs this passage, "July the twenty-sixth,
sixteen hundred and sixty-one, we began our
journey northwards from Cambridge; and
that day, passing through Huntingdon and
Stilton, we rode as far as Peterborough twenty-
five miles. There I first heard the Cathedral
service. The choristers made us pay money
for coming into the choir with our spurs on."
Mr. Markland says that, "In the time of Ben
Jonson, in consequence of the interruptions
to divine service occasioned by the ringing
of the spurs worn by persons walking and
transacting business in Cathedrals, and
especially in St. Paul's, a small fine was
imposed on them, called spur-money; the
exaction of which was committed to the
beadles and singing-boys." The late King of
Hanover, when Duke of Cumberland, was
once asked for spur-money in Westminster
Abbey. He resisted the demand on the plea
of possessing a right to wear spurs there,
inasmuch as it was the place where they were
put on him. One who has himself been a
chorister and has tasted the sweets of spur-
money, states that, after the claim was made,
the person from whom it was sought to be
exacted had the power to summon the
youngest chorister before him, and request
him to "repeat his gamut;" if he failed, the
spur-bearer was entitled to exemption. The
chorister confesses his ignorance of the origin
of this curious supplementary custom; but
Mr. Rimbault has since found an entry which
throws light upon the matter. In the ancient
Cheque Book of the Chapel Royal is an order
or decree, made by the Dean of the Chapel
Royal in sixteen hundred and twenty-two, to
the effect "That if anie knight or other
persons entituled to weare spurs enter the
chappell in that guise, he shall pay to ye
quiristers the accustomed fine; but, if he
command ye youngest quirister to repeate
his gamut, and he faile in ye so doing, the said
knight, or other, shall not pay ye fine." This
was no bad way of keeping the youngsters
up to the mark in their musical practice, and
was perhaps started with that very object.
Mr. Rimbault states that the late Duke of
Wellington once entered the Royal Chapel
booted and spurred, and was called upon for
the fine; but the shrewd old soldier, calling
upon the youngest chorister to repeat his
gamut, and the urchin failing, the impost was
not persisted in. When spur-money was
originally demanded does not seem to be known;
but that it was a custom before fifteen
hundred and ninety-eight is shown by a passage
published in a book in that year:—"Wee
think it very necessarye that every quirister
sholde bringe with him to churche a Testament
in Englishe, and turn to everie chapter
as it is daily read, or som other good and
godly prayer-booke, rather than spend their
tyme in talk and hunting after spur-money,
whereon they set their whole mindes, and do
often abuse dyvers if they doe not bestowe
somewhat on them." It is said that on the
belfry wall of All Saints' Church at Hastings
are written some verses, of which the following
is one:—

"If yon ring in spur or hat,
Sixpence you pay—be sure of that;
And if a bell you overthrow,
Pray pay a groat before you go."

The whip does not appear to be so knightly
as the former. There is nothing about crusaders,
and chevaliers, and tournaments, and
queens of beauty, in connection with the idea
of a whip. The whip, however, took part in
several curious old customs. Drake
mentions, in his Eboracum, that, in York, Saint
Luke's day was known as Whip-dog-day, from
the custom of boys going about the city and
whipping every dog they could meet with.
The tradition was, that a priest, once
celebrating Mass in the Cathedral on Saint Luke's
day, accidentally dropped the pix, which a
dog suddenly snapped up and swallowed.
This profanation occasioned the immediate
death of that unlucky dog, and originated the
practice of whipping the rest of his species in
the town on that anniversary for centuries
after. Nearly every association with whips is
of a painful character. It recalls unpleasant