Tuesday 21 June 2016

Shoe Folklore

Down at Heel: To be poor

Recorded in 1732 in William Darrell's A gentleman instructed in the conduct of a virtuous and happy life

Shoes and shoe leather were expensive, for the poor repairs were costly and as they often only had one pair of shoes, difficult to manage.

The phrase well heeled may have arisen as an antidote to this however there are other theories on the origin of that - see Phrases.org.uk


Louis XIV (1701) by Hyacinthe Rigaud (again).

No comments:

Post a Comment