1805-1820 ca. Combination Shoe and Patten, Or Overshoe. Raises foot off the ground but still elegant enough to be genteel. Very practical but not to everyone’s taste. When Jane Austen and her family and friends went walking in the country, the ground was often very wet due to England’s high rainfall and snowfall so pattens were used to keep shoes and the hems of clothing out of the mud.

Only one of this pair of shoes survives. It effectively combines shoe and patten (overshoe) in one, so raising the foot off the ground but remaining sufficiently elegant to be considered genteel. This type of shoe was very practical but not to everyone’s taste. In 1840 The Shoemaker described it as going out of fashion partly because it looked ‘masculine for the chaster taste of the wearer’. via Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK. collections.vam.ac.uk