Grecian shoes were peculiar in reaching to the middle of the legs.
The present fashion of shoes was introduced into England in 1633.
In the ninth and tenth centuries the greatest princes of Europe wore wooden shoes.
Slippers were in use before Shakespeare's time, and were originally made "rights" and "lefts."
Shoes among the Jews were made of leather, linen, rush or wood; soldiers' shoes were sometimes made of brass or iron.
In the reign of William Rufus of England, in the eleventh century, a great beau, "Robert, the Horned," used shoes with sharp points, stuffed with tow, and twisted like rams' horns.
The Romans made use of two kinds of shoes—the solea, or sandal, which covered the sole of the foot, and was worn at home and in company, and the calceus, which covered the whole foot and was always worn with the toga when a person went abroad.
In the reign of Richard II., shoes were of such absurd length as to require to be supported by being tied to the knees with chains, sometimes of gold and silver. In 1463 the English parliament took the matter in hand and passed an act forbidding shoes with spikes more than two inches in length being worn and manufactured.
TABLE SHOWING THE AVERAGE VELOCITIES OF VARIOUS BODIES.
A man walks 3 miles per hour or 4 feet per second.
A horse trots 7 miles per hour or 10 feet per second.
A horse runs 20 miles per hour or 29 feet per second.
Steamboat runs 20 miles per hour or 26 feet per second.
Sailing vessel runs 10 miles per hour or 14 feet per second.
Rapid rivers flow 3 miles per hour or 4 feet per second.
A moderate wind blows 7 miles per hour or 10 feet per second.
A storm moves 36 miles per hour or 52 feet per second.
A hurricane moves 80 miles per hour or 117 feet per second.
A rifle ball 1000 miles per hour or 1466 feet per second.
Sound 743 miles per hour or 1142 feet per second.
Light, 192,000 miles per second.
Electricity, 288,000 miles per second.