CHAPTER VI.

THE POETRY OF THE FEET, ETC.

That any form of boot or shoe should have interfered with the beauty of the human foot and its elastic tread, is much to be lamented. The sculptures of antiquity all show great symmetry and beauty of form, whether in the male or female foot: the plump, rounded, and truly natural shape of the feet of the Venus de Medicis has excited the admiration of every one who ever looked at that beautiful statue.

Poets in all ages have been lavish in their praises of the “human foot divine,” and a volume of extracts might be made on the poetry of the feet. The inspired Isaiah breaks forth--“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings.” Kitto says, in his remarks on this passage, “When the person is very eminent for rank or holiness, the mention of the feet rather than any other part of the person denotes the respect or reverence of the speaker; and then, also, an epithet of praise or distinction is given to the feet, of which, as the most popular instance, the ‘golden feet’ of the Burmese monarch forming the title by which he is usually named by his subjects.”

Homer pays homage in the Iliad to Thetis, whom he calls “the silver-footed queen.”

Bathus, in the Tenth Idyllium of Theocritus, exclaims:--

“Charming Bombyce, you my numbers greet, How lovely, fair, and beautiful your feet!”

While Paris in making choice of the many beautiful virgins brought before him, pays particular attention to their pedal attractions:--

“Their gait he marked as gracefully they moved, And round their feet his eye sagacious roved.”

Ben Jonson describes a lover whose affection for his mistress was so great that he--

----“would adore the shoe, And slipper was left off, and kiss it too.”

and again--

“And where she went the flowers took thickest root, As she had sowed them with her odorous foot.”

Butler, too, has the same springing up of flowers in his “Hudibras”:--

“Where’er you tread, your foot shall set The primrose and the violet.”

In an anonymous volume of poems printed in 1653, the writer being contemporary with Butler, we find the following beautiful sentiment:--

“How her feet tempt; how soft and light she treads, Fearing to wake the flowers from their beds: Yet from their sweet green pillows everywhere They start and gaze about to see my fair.

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Look how that pretty modest columbine Hangs down its head to view those feet of thine! See the fond motion of the strawberrie Creeping on earth we go along with thee; The lovely violet makes after too, Unwilling yet, my dear, to part with you. The knot-grass and the daisies catch thy toes To kisse my faire one’s feet before she goes.”

Shakspere, in “Troilus and Cressida,” describes Diomede walking:--

“‘Tis he, I ken the manner of his gait; He rises on the toe; that spirit of his, In aspiration lifts him from the earth!”

Again:--

“Shore’s wife hath a pretty foot;”

and his graphic description of a free-natured woman--

----“nay, her foot speaks.”

Old Herrick, who seems to have had the finest perception of the delicate and charming, thus compliments Mrs. Susanna Southwood:--

“Her pretty feet, Like smiles, did creep A little out, and then, As if they started at bo peep, Did soon draw in again.”

It is the exquisite intimation of the lively character of the inward spirit, shown in the active movements of the feet, which Sir John Suckling has imitated in his ballad of the Wedding:--

“Her feet beneath her petticoat Like little mice stole in and out, As if they feared the light; But oh, she dances such a way, No sun upon an Easter day Is half so fine a sight!”

Very beautiful also is the following, from one of our old poets. The words are given entire, in Wilson’s “Cheerful Ayres for three Voices.” Who could do any harm to so beautiful a part of the human frame?

“Doe not feare to put thy feet Naked in the river sweet; Think not newt, nor leech, nor toade, Will bite thy foot where thou hast trode.”

These pretty allusions to pretty feet might be multiplied to a great extent; they will, however, suffice to show the homage paid by all true poets to these useful and beautiful members.

I come now to the more practical part of the subject, and will, to the best of my ability, say a few words to the ladies respecting boots and shoes of the present day. I am of opinion that the best coverings for the feet are boots; not only do they look neat and tidy, but the general and gradual support they give all over the feet and ankles induces strength and gives tone to the veins and muscles. Shoes, on the contrary, and especially long-quartered ones, require a great effort from the muscles to be kept on, and this, when long applied, tires and weakens. The lace and button boots usually worn need not be described; they are very good and suitable to most feet, and, if cut well and lasted properly, generally give comfort and satisfaction. The trouble, however, of lacing and unlacing, the tag coming off, the button breaking, or the shank hurting, the holes soon wearing out, and many other little annoyances, have all been experienced as _bores_ by thousands who have worn that kind of boot.

About ten years since I first thought of an elastic boot, that might possibly remedy in a great measure all these minor evils, and combine many advantages never possessed by any former boot. I am not, however, sure that an elastic boot was not known at a very early period in England.

The following passage from Chaucer seems to favor the idea:--

“Of shoon and boot’es new and faire, Look at least thou have a paire, And that they fit so fetously,[2] That these rude men may utterly Marvel, sith they sit so plain, How they come on and off again.”

What this boot could have been, we are now at a loss to know, and unfortunately the paintings and sculptures of antiquity, are not sufficiently clear in these little matters of texture and material, to gain any information: no such boot has, however, been known in our time, or many centuries before.

My first experiments were a failure, as the manufacture of elastic materials was not so perfect as they are at the present period, and the necessary elasticity could not be gained in any material I could meet with. The difficulty was to get an India-rubber web so plastic that the boot would go on and off, and yet not so soft and yielding as that it would not return again to its original form--my object being not only--

“That these rude men may utterly Marvel, sith they sit so plain, How they come on and off again,”

but that they should “sit plain” and “fit fetously” as well after they were on.

After several experiments in wire and India-rubber, I succeeded in getting the exact elasticity required, and subsequent improvements in materials and workmanship, have combined to make the elastic boot the most perfect thing of its kind.

I am indebted to the countess of Blessington, and Lady Charlotte Bacon, for some of the earliest hints and suggestions for its improvement; also to Mrs. S. C. Hall, the Baroness de Calabrella, and other ladies of literary fame, who were among the first to patronise the invention. One of my earliest customers, a lady of great originality of thought and expression, first induced me to make it an article of universal sale, by saying:--

“These boots are the comfort of my life, if you were only to give them a sounding name--if you like, call them _lazy boots_ and turn it into _Greek_--all the world will buy them, and you’ll make your fortune.”

For many years I have scarcely made any other kind of boots but the elastic; but, I have not made a fortune. I am happy, however, if in any way I have contributed to the comfort of my fellow-creatures, or been instrumental in affording employment to my own countrymen.

Her majesty has been pleased to honor the invention with the most marked and continued patronage; it has been my privilege for some years to make boots of this kind for her majesty, and no one who reads the court circular, or is acquainted with her majesty’s habits of walking and exercise in the open air, can doubt the superior claims of the elastic over every other kind of boots; it has been well remarked, “the road to health is a footpath.”

The materials for making ladies’ boots have been various, the best of course have been those which combine strength with a thin delicate texture; for strong double or cork sole boots, cloth, kerseymere, or cashmere; for single sole, summer, or dress boots, silk, satin, and an improved prunella, with a twilled silk back, is best.

The neatest, firmest, and the coolest material I have ever used is a silk web, called _stocking-net_; this I have had woven in black and colors, and as it readily moulds to the form of the foot, and can be made up without seams, it is a favorite material with her majesty, and the most distinguished ladies of her court: this boot would appear to be the veritable “boote newe and faire” of old Chaucer’s time, so thoroughly light, elastic, and graceful, as it is to a pretty foot.

The leather best adapted for ladies’ boots is morocco or goat-skin, which, when properly dressed, is sufficiently strong and durable--kid being the skin of the young goat, is naturally finer and more delicate; the enamel or varnish leather, commonly called _patent_, is also very suitable, and being made of calf-skin, is strong. For the little toecaps and golashes of ladies’ boots it answers admirably, and as it requires no cleaning, always looks well, and the upper part of the boot is kept clean and tidy.

Some ladies, however, can not bear any leather--the material best adapted for such is the Pannuscorium, or leather-cloth. This invention has met with very extensive patronage from a class whose feet require something softer even than the softest leather.

As it resembles the finest leather in appearance, and has many of the best properties of the usual cordovan, and not having like it to be tanned and curried, it does not draw the feet; its peculiar softness and pliability, therefore, at once commend it to the notice of those persons who have corns and tender feet.

One very important thing to be attended to, is, that the golashes and toecaps of all boots should come _above_ or _below_ the joint of the great toe. Very frequently the edge of the leather comes at the very worst part of the foot; and, strange enough, sometimes we see a hard seam put exactly on the corn, and running across the bunion. If no leather be put at all, the boot or shoe being made entirely of stuff, frequently a secret enemy lurks between the outside and the lining, in the shape of a leather side-lining; weeks pass on perhaps without your being aware of its presence; at last, from the heat and perspiration of the feet, this side-lining becomes as hard as horn, and great pain is the consequence.

Shortly after the elastic boot was brought out, I made a little improvement in shoes, which are now made wholly or partially elastic. They are well suited for ladies whose feet swell, or whose insteps rise very suddenly, as they accommodate themselves to those changes. Morocco, prunella, and leather shoes, may all be made comfortable by attending to the instructions contained in the previous chapter on the proper forms of lasts.

The elastic clog is another improvement on the old mode of fastening with straps, buckles, and buttons; clogs on this principle are put on and taken off without any trouble or fastening, and by a very simple arrangement of a plush back, all chafing of the boot is avoided and great firmness secured, without a chance of their slopping.

Ladies should always have a pair of these clogs ready to slip on--as they wonderfully save the boots in dirty weather; and, after having worn the elastic boot for some days and found the great support it gives to the ankles, how easily it remedies undue swelling and enlargement of the veins, and prevents frequently that serious disease, varicose veins, no one would like, nor is it advisable, immediately on returning home after a dirty walk, to throw off the boots; the remedy is then found in the clogs or golashes; you put them on over your thin ordinary boots, and thus protected, you may go where you please, and taking them off on your return home, walk in on the finest carpet without a chance of soiling or injuring it.

CHILDREN’S BOOTS AND SHOES.

The attention of every mother should be given to the state of her child’s feet. How much subsequent pain, distortion, and lameness, might be spared, if a little consideration were given in time to the child’s shoes and boots. As a general rule, if proper length and width be given, all will be well; but this must be seen to frequently, as little feet soon grow larger.

If shoes are worn, they should be easy across the toes, and of good form in the sole, hollow and arched at the waist, and snug at the heel--if boots, then the elastic the same as ladies’.

If the ankles are weak, a surgeon should be consulted without delay. I have benefited many children by making an elastic lace boot, which, from the support it affords, compressing the muscles of the foot, and by bearing well up by means of a spring under the arch of the foot, has prevented lameness, and restored the feet and ankles to their natural form.

GENTLEMEN’S BOOTS AND SHOES.

The foregoing remarks on ladies’ boots, apply equally to gentlemen’s half-boots, the same materials being used for dress or summer walking; they need, therefore, only to be referred to in their proper place, and the remarks and illustrations, pages 105-108, will convey all that is necessary to know of the proper shape and true principles of fitting, sufficient length, straightness of form, and the room in the right place, being the chief points to be attended to.

Shoes are now very little worn; boots of some kind or other being the general wear. At present, says the author of “The Shoemaker,” we are emphatically a booted people; so are the French and the Americans; the fashion goes onward with the great progress of civilization; it is as it were its very sign. Homer has applied to his own far-famous countrymen, the epithet of the _well-booted Greeks_, a somewhat singular coincidence at first sight, though doubtless he meant no more than some sort of stiff leg-covering, as a protection necessary to the warriors of whom he sang, and bearing no likeness to the gay delicate boot of later times.

The fame of the English in this way is not, however, altogether new; though from what the present generation must have observed since the introduction of the Wellington, it may seem to be otherwise. We were, it appears, a booted people before, or at least were so considered.

“I will amaze my countrymen,” said Gondemar, Spanish ambassador, to the court of James I., “by letting them know on my return that all London is booted, and apparently ready to walk out of town.” The reflection certainly is curious; the old poets and heroes were booted, and the hero of Waterloo has given as proud a distinction to our own boot. But then people in past days, when they had their boots on, were thought to look prepared for a journey, whereas, at present, the boot is almost as domestic a thing as the slipper. We go to the ballroom in it, the theatre, the houses of parliament, and even royalty itself is approached in the boots!

The Wellington is unquestionably the most gentlemanly thing of its kind, and all the attempts of the Bluchers, Alberts, Clarences, Cambridges, and such like, to rival it, most signally fail. Its well-known character for style, wear, and facility of repair, has stamped it the boot of the present day.

A good Wellington boot of the softest calf-leather, the sole moderately thick, the waist hollow and well-arched, firm and yet flexible, cut to go on without dragging all your might with boothooks, and made with an intermediate sole of felt to prevent creaking, is the best boot for general wear that can be made.

The varnished or patent leather Wellington, is a handsome article of the same class, and is generally made with a tongue, the legs being of colored morocco leather. It is now brought to a great state of perfection, and our bootclosers are the most perfect in the matter of fancy-closing and stabbing, in Europe.

For many years, this department of the trade has been quite distinct from shoemaking, or boot-making. Originally, closing, making the boot, shoe, and slipper, and even ladies’ and children’s shoes, was the work of one individual; now they are separate branches, and the closer has not only risen in this country, but his work is universally celebrated from this circumstance, for its strength and beauty. Perhaps nothing in the way of workmanship is equal to what is termed _blind-stabbing_: the leather, held between the workman’s knees, is pierced with a small pointed awl, which he holds together with the flax or silken thread that is to follow, in his right hand; his left on the inside of the bootleg, and _in the dark_, in an instant sends through the bristle, and receives through the same little hole the point of the right hand one; the thread is drawn, the stitch formed, quickly another hole is made, and the same operation repeated.

Nothing in the way of sewing or stitching, can equal this blind-stabbing, one half of which is done in the dark, the skill being acquired by constant practice, and the extreme delicacy of the touch; from twenty to thirty stitches have been done to the inch in this way, and in _prize-work_ as many as sixty, every stitch being clear, sharply defined, beautifully regular.

THE ELASTIC BOOT FOR GENTLEMEN, is a light and easy article; it does not encumber the leg, and, unlike the half-and-half Clarence, with its valve of folded leather, and all kinds of holes and contrivances, it fits the ankle like a stocking, and readily yields and elasticates to every motion of the feet and legs.

The cut represents an elastic boot with a golosh of leather all round, the upper part being cloth, silk, prunella, cashmere, kid, or the silk-stocking net; the material generally determining the kind of boot it is to be, and the thickness of the sole. When it is required that the elastic boot should have the appearance of a Wellington, it is made entirely of leather, spring and all, and thus made, when on the foot, has every appearance of it, as no join is ever detected above the instep, when the trowsers accidentally rise a little higher than the wearer of a would-be Wellington sometimes wishes them.

Travellers find these boots great comforts, they take up very little room in the portmanteau, are soon cleaned, and are on and off in an instant; if made of patent leather, they need only a wipe with an old silk handkerchief. No boothooks are ever required, the best hooks being nature’s own, the fingers, and the only bootjack ever wanted, is the toe of one boot applied to the heel of the other.

_Dress Pumps_ are almost the only shoes now worn; they are generally made of patent leather, and should be cut to sit well at the quarters.

The _Oxonian Shoe_ is, however, a very useful article, and if properly made, is the best shoe for walking and for wear. It laces up in front with three or four holes, and sits snug about the quarters and heel; the vamp comes well above the joint, and never hurts, by seams or pressure, the little toes: if it were not for the seam across the instep, girding and making it difficult to get the shoe on, and the frequent breaking at that part from the strain it undergoes, no shoe could be better.

I have, however, effected a great improvement in it, which remedies the evil at once, gives great freedom in putting on, and entirely prevents the breaking of the seam and vamp; this improvement would, however, be hardly intelligible from description, and must therefore be seen to be understood properly. For shooting, and strong wear, it will be found extremely suitable, and it is perhaps the best of all shoes for young gentlemen.

STOCKINGS, WASHING THE FEET, &C.--Much more of comfort to the feet depends on the stockings than people are aware of; nothing can be worse than a stocking too large or too small, the more common case is its largeness, and when I see a cotton or thread stocking tucked under at the toe, and by the perspiration of the foot and the tread, become quite hard and compact, a hard ridge of a seam pressing on the toes, which show the marks produced by the pressure all over the surface, I wonder how persons _can_ expect comfort.

The best stockings for general wear, are those made of lamb’s wool, vigonia, and Shetland knit. The pedestrian well knows the difference on a long day’s walk, between a cotton or linen stocking and one of wool; he knows that the former soon becomes hard, damp, and chilly, with the moisture of the foot, whereas the latter enables him to bear fatigue, defends his foot from the friction of the shoe, secures it from blisters, and in every way ministers to his comfort.

Persons, however, who do not use much exercise may indulge in a silk stocking; ladies will not only find this the most elegant of all coverings for the feet, but at the same time far more comfortable than either cotton or linen. If the best silk is considered too expensive, then a thick spun silk is a good substitute.

The frequent change of the stockings conduces much to comfort, and they should, in cases of corns or tender feet, be worn inside-out; even the little seam of a stocking has aggravated in a great measure a corn just appearing, which but for that pressure, might soon have been got rid of.

Let the feet be bathed at least three times a week in tepid or cold water. For some years I was in the habit of making easy shoes for the late Sir Astley Cooper. That eminent surgeon never cramped his feet, nor wore shoes that would give him pain; but one thing, however, he habitually accustomed himself to, and that was to immerse his feet in cold water as soon as he arose, and use a rough towel freely afterward.

In the coldest day of winter, he was to be seen without a great coat, with silk stockings on his legs, and short breeches, traversing the court of the hospital, or sitting in his carriage.

The sponge should be applied to the feet, and between the toes, round the nails, which should be cut just to a level with the toe-end, and then a good rubbing all over with a dry towel, a little Eau de Cologne to finish off, and you feel quite another creature.

Every care should be taken that the insensible perspiration of the feet should be encouraged and allowed to pass off freely. Dr. Wilson, in his “Practical Treatise on Healthy Skin,” says: “To arrive at something like an estimate of the value of the perspiratory system, in relation to the rest of the organism, I counted the perspiratory pores on the palm of the hand, and found 3,528 to the square inch, (on the heel where the ridges are coarser 2,268). Now each of these pores being the aperture of a little tube of about a quarter of an inch long, it follows that in a square inch of skin, there exists a length of tube equal to 882 inches, or 73½ feet. Surely, such an amount of drainage as 73 feet in every square inch of skin, assuming this to be the average for the whole body, is something wonderful, and the thought naturally intrudes itself what if this _drainage_ were obstructed?”

This is too often the case, improper shoes and waterproof materials, not only check the natural evaporation of the skin, but eventually produce diseases of the feet in the worst form; nothing so much conduces to general comfort, as the feet and ankles being in a healthy state, and few things tell upon the manners and temper more than constant pain and irritability of the extremities.

The fashions of boots and shoes have met with their share of our attention and research, the errors of form and make have been pointed out, the best remedies have been suggested, it now only remains for us to adhere as closely to nature’s laws as possible. Art may do much, but even Miss Kilmansegg’s “precious leg” of pure gold, was but a poor substitute for her more precious lost one.

“Peace and ease, and slumber lost, She turned, and rolled, and tumbled, and tossed, With a tumult that would not settle; A common case indeed with such, As have too little, or think too much, Of the precious and glittering metal.

“Gold! she saw at her golden foot, The peer whose tree had an olden root, The proud, the great, the learned to boot, The handsome, the gay, and the witty-- The man of science, of arms, of art, The man who deals but at pleasure’s mart, And the man who deals in the city.”

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(1.) Many are the hints thrown out by some of our old herbalists, in their quaint language, as to the power of some of our indigenous herbs. One which has certainly some slight influence on corns, and is a great favorite among the popular writers on corns, is the common house-leek, the _sedum murale_. This herb which is found growing on the tops of old garden-walls and upon the roofs of houses, has a leaf of considerable thickness, owing to the large quantity of cellular tissue between its upper and lower lamina, in whose interstices is found considerable juice, which abounds with hydrochloric acid in a free and uncombined state. Owing, doubtless, to the presence of the acid, the juice acts upon the indurated mass, softening and destroying the surface, but leaving the lower parts as great a source of mischief as ever, and sometimes converting the corn into a more hardened mass than it was before.--_The Diseases of the Feet._

(2.) “There is another way of disposing of a corn,” says Mr. Erasmus Wilson, “which I have been in the habit of recommending to my friends; it is effectual, and obviates the necessity for the use of the knife. Have some common sticking-plaster spread on buff leather; cut a piece sufficiently large to cover the com and skin around, and have a hole punched in the middle of exactly the size of the summit of the corn. Now take some common soda of the oil-shops, and make it into a paste, with about half its bulk of soap; fill the hole in the plaster with this paste, and cover it with a piece of sticking-plaster. Let this be done at bed-time, and in the morning remove the plaster, and wash the corn with warm water. If this operation be repeated every second, third, or fourth day, for a short time, the corn will be removed. The only precaution required to be used is to avoid causing pain; and so long as any tenderness occasioned by the remedy lasts, it must not be repeated. When the corn is reduced within reasonable bounds by either of the above modes, or when it is only threatening, and has not yet risen to the height of being a sore annoyance, the best of all remedies is a piece of soft buff leather, spread with soap-plaster, and pierced in the centre with a hole exactly the size of the summit of the corn.”

(3.) It is usually the custom to soak the corns previously to cutting them. As this is not always convenient, the following method of rendering the corn soft well serve instead. Take a strip of wash-leather, of size sufficient to cover the corn, and a strip of oiled silk rather larger; wet the leather and apply it to the corn, then cover it with the oiled silk, which will prevent the leather from becoming dry. Keep this on for a few days, wetting the leather two or three times a day. This will render the corn so soft that the razor may be applied without causing pain.