The Spur of this century is of three kinds: the simple goad, the ball-and-spike, and the rowel. The goad is sometimes straight, sometimes curved. The straight spike is seen in this example of an iron spur found in the churchyard of Chesterford, Cambridgeshire, and now preserved in the collection of the Hon. Richard Neville. Compare our engravings, Nos. 58 and 85. The curved goad appears in woodcuts 55 and 73. Our engravings, Nos. 62, 72 and 81 shew the ball-and-spike kind; of which we have already seen examples in the statues of Henry II. and Richard I. at Fontevraud. The rowel spur is found but in one or two instances during this century. It is represented on the seal of Henry III., here given; where, in order to bring up the rowel to the middle of the heel, the seal-engraver has resorted to the singular expedient of raising the field into a sort of hillock, on the top of which he has sculptured the star-like rowel. See Harleian Charter, 43, C. 38. The rowel spur again appears on the effigy of Le Botiler (woodcut, No. 74). It is, however, rather a characteristic of the fourteenth than of this century; and, generally speaking, its presence alone should lead one to hesitate long before assigning a monument to the earlier period, even though it should exhibit all the other features of the more ancient costume. The monument of Johan Le Botiler, just named, is by no means exempt from the operation of this rule. [Illustration: GREAT SEAL OF KING HENRY III. No. 79.] The shank of the spur is curved, each end being formed into a loop to receive the strap. The strap itself is single, buckling over the instep. See Stothard's Plates XVII. and XXII. Some exceptions occur to this usual arrangement. In the effigy of a De L'Isle, figured by Stothard, Plate XX., the outer shank is flattened into a trefoil and rivetted upon the leather. In the figure at Norton, Durham, (woodcut, No. 70,) the shanks terminate in rings, and two straps are employed to fix the spur to the foot. Both straps and spurs are occasionally shewn of an enriched character. On folio 27 of Harl. MS. 3,244, the spur is ornamented with a row of studs or bosses. In the brass at Acton, Suffolk, 1302 (Waller, Pt. ii.), the pattern consists of rosettes. The gilded spurs of the knights occasionally became the trophy of a victory; as in the case of the battle of Courtray, in 1302. More than five hundred pairs, Froissart tells us, were suspended in a chapel of the church of Our Lady of Courtray: "Et ces éperons avoient jadis été des seigneurs de France, qui avoient été morts en la dite bataille; et en faisoient ceux de Courtray tous les ans, pour le triomphe, très grand solemnité[360]."