The frequency of the development of literary talent among shoemakers has often been remarked. Their occupation, being a sedentary and comparatively noiseless one, may be considered as more favorable than some others to meditation; but perhaps its literary productiveness has arisen quite as much from the circumstance of its being a trade of light labor, and therefore resorted to, in preference to most others, by persons in humble life who are conscious of more mental talent than bodily strength. To add further to the interest of this volume, we have selected a few pages of anecdotes, and other miscellaneous matters, tending to elucidate this History and account of the “gentle craft;” the members of which may well be proud of such names as their Sherman, Drew, Bloomfield, Gifford, Lee, Sheffey, Worcester, and others, whose memory will long live, as having adorned the various pursuits in which they became eminent. While this work will prove useful and instructive as presenting, in the biographical sketches, a body of examples showing, how the most unpropitious circumstances have been unable to subdue an ardent desire for the acquisition of knowledge, and the cultivation of a refined taste; the lover of antiquities, and the votary of fashion, will here have their curiosity gratified, in a history of the varied changes which have taken place in an important article of dress, from the pyramidal ages of ancient Egypt, long ere Greece or Rome occupied a space in history, to the present time, when the beauty, taste, and convenience, of modern boots and shoes, combine to establish the superiority of the cordwainers of Europe and America, compared with their predecessors of any nation or age. CONTENTS. PAGE. CHAP. I.--On the most ancient Covering of the Feet 7 CHAP. II.--The History of Boots and Shoes in England 30 CHAP. III.--On the more modern Forms of foreign Boots and Shoes 58 CHAP. IV.--Commencement of the Trade 75 CHAP. V.--The Structure of the Human Foot, making Lasts, Curing Corns, etc. 96 CHAP. VI.--The Poetry of the Feet, etc. 112 CHAP. VII.--History of Boots and Shoes in the United States 135 CHAP. VIII.--Biographical Sketches of Eminent Shoemakers 147 Roger Sherman, 147.--Daniel Sheffey, 155.--Gideon Lee, 156.--Samuel Drew, 163.--Robert Bloomfield, 176.--Nathaniel Bloomfield, 181.--William Gifford, 183.--Noah Worcester, 192.--James Lackington, 196.--Joseph Pendrell, 198.--Thomas Holcroft, 199.--Rev. William Carey, D. D., 200.--George Fox, 202.--Rev. James Nichol, 202.--Rev. William Huntington, 203. CHAP. IX.--Crispin Anecdotes, etc. 204