My first experiments were a failure, as the manufacture of elastic materials was not so perfect as they are at the present period, and the necessary elasticity could not be gained in any material I could meet with. The difficulty was to get an India-rubber web so plastic that the boot would go on and off, and yet not so soft and yielding as that it would not return again to its original form—my object being not only—
“That these rude men may utterly
Marvel, sith they sit so plain,
How they come on and off again,”
but that they should “sit plain” and “fit fetously” as well after they were on.
After several experiments in wire and India-rubber, I succeeded in getting the exact elasticity required, and subsequent improvements in materials and workmanship, have combined to make the elastic boot the most perfect thing of its kind.
I am indebted to the countess of Blessington, and Lady Charlotte Bacon, for some of the earliest hints and suggestions for its improvement; also to Mrs. S. C. Hall, the Baroness de Calabrella, and other ladies of literary fame, who were among the first to patronise the invention. One of my earliest customers, a lady of great originality of thought and expression, first induced me to make it an article of universal sale, by saying:—
“These boots are the comfort of my life, if you were only to give them a sounding name—if you like, call them lazy boots and turn it into Greek—all the world will buy them, and you’ll make your fortune.”
For many years I have scarcely made any other kind of boots but the elastic; but, I have not made a fortune. I am happy, however, if in any way I have contributed to the comfort of my fellow-creatures, or been instrumental in affording employment to my own countrymen.
Her majesty has been pleased to honor the invention with the most marked and continued patronage; it has been my privilege for some years to make boots of this kind for her majesty, and no one who reads the court circular, or is acquainted with her majesty’s habits of walking and exercise in the open air, can doubt the superior claims of the elastic over every other kind of boots; it has been well remarked, “the road to health is a footpath.”
The materials for making ladies’ boots have been various, the best of course have been those which combine strength with a thin delicate texture; for strong double or cork sole boots, cloth, kerseymere, or cashmere; for single sole, summer, or dress boots, silk, satin, and an improved prunella, with a twilled silk back, is best.