Wedding Slippers and Brocade. 1712.
Buskins to the knee were worn even by royalty; Queen Elizabeth’s still exist. Buskins were in wear when the colonies were settled. Richard Sawyer, of Windsor, Connecticut, had cloth buskins in 1648; and a hundred years later runaway servants wore them. One redemptioner is described as running off in “sliders and buskins.” American buskins were a foot-covering consisting of a strong leather sole with cloth uppers and leggins to the knees, which were fastened with lacings. Startups were similar, but heavier. In Thynne’s Debate between Pride and Lowliness, the dress of a countryman is described. It runs thus:—
“A payre of startups had he on his feete
That lased were up to the small of the legge.
Homelie they are, and easier than meete;
And in their soles full many a wooden pegge.”
Thomas Johnson of Wethersfield, Connecticut, died in 1840. He owned “1 Perre of Startups.”
Slippers were worn even in the fifteenth century. In the Paston Letters, in a letter dated February 23, 1479, is this sentence, “In the whych lettre was VIII d with the whych I shulde bye a peyr of slyppers.” Even for those days eightpence must have been a small price for slippers. In 1686, Judge Samuel Sewall wrote to a member of the Hall family thanking him for “The Kind Loving Token—the East Indian Slippers for my wife.” Other colonial letters refer to Oriental slippers; and I am sure that Turkish slippers are worn by Lady Temple in her childish portrait, painted in company with her brother. Slip-shoes were evidently slippers—the word is used by Sewall; and slap-shoes are named by Randle Holme. Pantofles were also slippers, being apparently rather handsomer footwear than ordinary slippers or slip-shoes. They are in general specified as embroidered. Evelyn tells of the fine pantofles of the Pope embroidered with jewels on the instep.
So great was the use and abuse of leather that a petition was made to Parliament in 1629 to attempt to restrict the making of great boots. One sentence runs:—
“The wearing of Boots is not the Abuse; but the generality of wearing and the manner of cutting Boots out with huge slovenly unmannerly immoderate tops. What over lavish spending is there in Boots and Shoes. To either of which is now added a French proud Superfluity of Leather.
“For the general Walking in Boots it is a Pride taken up by the Courtier and is descended to the Clown. The Merchant and Mechanic walk in Boots. Many of our Clergy either in neat Boots or Shoes and Galloshoes. University Scholars maintain the Fashion likewise. Some Citizens out of a Scorn not to be Gentile go every day booted. Attorneys, Lawyers, Clerks, Serving Men, All Sorts of Men delight in this Wasteful Wantonness.
“Wasteful I may well call it. One pair of boots eats up the leather of six reasonable pair of men’s shoes.”
