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230 invariably from one evil to another. At one time the toes have had such long and narrow points that they were turned far up and fastened by a chain to the knee, while at another they have been perfectly square; at one time the heels have been half a foot high, at another they have been quite flat. Francis I. of France was a free liver, and suffered much from swollen feet; he, therefore, introduced preternaturally wide toes, and this fashion spread so quickly over Europe that in the sixteenth century a law was passed in England prohibiting the wearing of boots more than six inches wide across the toes. Unnatural width in the toes of boots is, however, a less evil than the unnatural narrowness of the toe which has been the prevailing fashion for generations, and is still unfortunately so common that it is almost an impossibility to obtain a boot or shoe ready-made which is less than two inches narrower across the toe than the foot that has to be crammed into it.

The result of the high-heeled and pointed shoes, which curl the toes up into a painful mass and render the centre of gravity unstable, is to impede locomotion and make exercise repugnant. In this result they resemble that of the cioppini, on which the ladies of the sixteenth century and later were apt to hobble about, and which, according to Cobar-ruvias, were intended to prevent women from gadding. They were made first of wood and afterwards of cork, forming a clump under the shoe which was sometimes a foot and a half high, and highly orna-