Delightful history of ye gentle craft : an illustrated history of feet costume, with the princely and entertaining history of SS. Crispin and Crispianus, and other noted shoemakers / by Sam S. Campion.

  • Campion, Sam S.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Delightful history of ye gentle craft : an illustrated history of feet costume, with the princely and entertaining history of SS. Crispin and Crispianus, and other noted shoemakers / by Sam S. Campion. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mg of the natural beauty and perfection of the foot, says “ The matchless forms of sculptured beauty which the destroying band of Time has left us in the works of the mighty masters of the classic time, exhibit to us the finest specimens of what the foot would be if allowed its free and uninterrupted action. We are immediately struck with the admirable manner in which it is organized, both for the support of the frame and for motion; its flexibility, its power of action, its form, seem all to have been the result ol the examination of the most perfect human models. We see that there have been no artificial human coverings, no compression, no restraints, that the gait must have been free, firm, and elastic; that the natural and healthful action of every muscle, tendon, joint, and bone was fully studied and expressed. There is no stiffness, no contraction of the heel or the sole of the foot ; to the toes are given their proper functions ; we see that only the sandal has been worn merely to cover and protect the integument under the broad and expanded foot 5 there have been no ligatures, no unyielding bandages, no cramping compresses—all is alike free, healthful, natural. We well can comprehend, on examining them, how the Macedonian phalanx, or the Roman legion, performed its long day’s march. We can see how ten thousand Greeks pursued their daily wearying course through the destroying climate Oi Asia, marching firmly, manfully, alike across the arid sand, the mountain pass, or the flinty plain. We are almost led to wish to see the European soldier similarly prepared for his toilsome march, unencum- bered by the unyielding shoe, which sometimes becomes in the day a source of greater annoyance than of comfort to him. He would be enabled to undertake fatigue and privations for which he is now totally unprepared. He would find an elastic tread, a firm command over his muscular system follow upon such a plan. He would be capable of making a charge upon the enemy with greater steadiness, and enabled to bear the shock which he is now less capable of resisting.” In the structure of the human foot there are no less than thirty-six bones and as many joints, with the wise and beautiful arrangement of muscles, veins, arteries, and the lubricating oily fluid which is necessary to keep the hinges which connect these many bones in easy working order. When we remember the structure of this marvel of delicate mechan- ism, we shall not be slow to recognise the folly which would allow the foot to be cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in” by arbitrarily unsuitable and unyielding foot-gear. When man first adopted a covering for the foot, even of the rudest description, is a question involved in utter obscurity. Originally, we imagine, our remote forefathers would be impatient of any provision which placed the slightest constraint upon the free and naturally
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