The Express.
London, England, 1851-07-26 00:00:00

AND SHOES.

There are few subjects of more homely interest
than the construction of the rather common-place arti-
ticks that form the contents of this department of the
Exhibition. England, thanks to the obstinacy of her
shoemakers and the vanity of her sons and daughters with
regard to their pedal extremities, has long been the favoured
land of corn and bunions, and little advance had been made
until very recently in the humanity-department of hoot and
shoemaking. Nature had made our feet in one fashion,
but the shoemakers had determined they should follow
another; and the consequence has been a perpetual
struggle between nature and art, in which the
'miner enjoyed all the pain and the latter carried
oft all the glory. Who does not feel a reminiscent
twinge in the region of the great toe when
he remembers the pointed boots with heels of an inch and
a quarter in height, in which he has been in the habit of
suffering martyrdom, in obedience to the high behests of
the sons of Crispin for the last twenty years ? The fact of
the matter is, that these gentlemen have been too great
votaries of high art to contemplate any use for their work
beyond the decorative furnishing of the shop window. They
forgot, or scorned to remember, that the foot is a piece of
nature's most wonderful mechanism, with bones and
muscles, and flesh and tendon, and that any violation of its
natural tendencies of development must be attended with
constant torture to the unfortunate individual on
whose person such atrocity is perpetrated. The
great object formerly was to produce a boot or
shoe which should look nice on a wooden tree, have
the most nicely arched instep, the most palpable hollow
underneath, and the narrowest possible resting place for
the heart of the foot. Splay feet were ignored, flat feet
were held to be impossibilities. The fashionable boot or
shoe was constructed like the great bed of \%'are, to whien
all sleepers, short or long, slender or dumpy, were, per-
force, obliged to accommodate themselves. A whole cy-
clopedia might be written on the past horrors of British
boot and shoemaking, and every line would strike a sym-
pathetic chord in the heart of the thousands of sufferers
whose toes have been annually crushed under the leathers
of the Sutorial Juggernaut. But we have now,
happily, fallen on better times. The French, however—
we may conscientiously abhor their wooden shoes—have
taught us a more rational node of making leather
ones. A proper breadth in the tread, a moderate altitude
in the heel, and sufficient room in the " upper " are now
desiderata which arc deemed indispensable by every good
London shoemaker. The visitor to the great Exhibition,
who walking up the British nave, casts his eye on the dis-
play of boots and shoes tastefully laid out on the right hand
side, near the top, will at once see that there is some force
'in these observations. The first stand in the department is
that of Me. Sparkes Hall, who has rendered his display
doubly interesting by contributing such a historical collec-
tion of court shoes and bouts, ranging from the
sixth century down to the present time. Ws
have the open sandal of the Saxon times, and
all the varieties of leather and velvet, of pointed
and spoon toed, of slashed and embroidered shoes, in which
fashion might have frolicked, through Plantagenet and
Tudor, York and Lancaster, Stuart and Hanoverian
dynasties. Of the whole collection the only graceful and
picturesque article is the buff boot of the dashing cavalier
of the Restoration, which looks like an article a gentleman
might wear, and which it would be presumption in any
one else to draw on. The general impression left by the
rest is that, however great might be the wisdom of our an-
cestors, their understandings were by no means properly
taken care of. In the construction of boots and shoes of his
own time Mr. Sparkes Hall has shown equal ingenuity,
and guided by modern lights, has produced a very article.
The boots and shoes for men's wear, besides attention to
the points before indicated, have commendable elegance of
form and workmanship, and arc adapted some for the ball-
room, sonic fur the sporting or fishing ground, and some
fur the racecourse, with admirable fitness and perfection of
mechanical skill. The principal novelty exhibited in this
stand is the ladies' boot in which side laces are dispensed
with, the space usually open being fitted with an elastic
material, called stockinet, which opening sufficiently to
admit the foot, is then sufficiently elastic to close
tightly and hold it, without the pain and labour of
' lacing. The material is used more or less extensively
in different patterns, but the principle is thee:erne, being the
substitution of an elastic material fur the old mode of fast-
ening. We understand her Majesty patronises this improve-
' ment, and has honoured the patentee with several orders.
The next stand is that of Mr. Medwin, of Regent-street,
who exhibits a somewhat similar invention, at least in its
promised results. This manufacturer calls his wares " Re.
silient" boots, and promises an elasticity which shall adapt
itself to all the sinuusitics of the foot, and by refusing to re-
tain any permanent impression, keep inviolate the great
bunion secret from the prying eyes of domestics. The articles
exhibited display great elegance of form and workmanship,
and have every appearance of being calculated to carry out
the objects intended. Thomas and Sun of James-street
have a small case of elaborately ornamented boots and shoes
more calculated to exhibit the taste and skill of the work-
man, than fur any purposes of general utility. But so orna-
mental as well as useful work less its customers, it is grati-
fying to know that our native workmen have attained such
a pitch of excellence in its fabrication. Northampton, in
which nothing but a shoemaker could exist, is represented by
several splendid cases of boots and shoes, one pair of the former
being so elaborately decoratel as to deserve a place in the fine
art section rather than in the homely leather department.
The princi:ad exhibitors from Northampton are Messrs.
Parker, Lloyd, Beam and Jeffs, Moore, and Groom, and the
goods of all evince the rapid progress going on in that
chosen home of the trade. The stand of Taylor and Bew-
ley is a most conspicuous object in the centre of the
nave, in which one is at a loss which most to admire,