# Horse shoes and horse shoeing: their origin, history, uses, and abuses/Chapter IX

CHAPTER IX.
After the Norman invasion of England, the shoeing of horses, and indeed everything relating to that noble animal, received much attention. Instead of being an obscure art, and apparently but rarely resorted to among the Anglo-Saxons, the Norman knights brought with them from the continent their maréchals of high rank, and their esteem for chivalry, which, without horses, could scarcely have existed. The advantages arising from the ​employment of horsemen had been amply demonstrated to them at the battle of Hastings, where their victory was mainly due to the well-equipped cavalry force they carried from Normandy. We have seen that in France shoeing was extensively practised at this time, and was, indeed, an inevitable necessity, from the custom introduced of cumbering men and horses with heavy weapons, and encasing them in massive armour. At Hastings, even the steeds were rendered proof against the attacks of the Anglo-Saxons by an impenetrable covering. Roger de Hovenden, writing of this period, says, 'Cepit Rex Angliæ 100 milites, et septies viginti equos coopertos ferro, et servientes equites, et pedites multo.'
So that in England the practice of shoeing horses with iron shoes attached to the hoofs by nails, was, after the settlement of the Normans, completely established and general. The form of shoe introduced by them was, perhaps, more artistic than that of the earlier periods, and the same as that in use in France; being usually furnished with calkins, heavy, larger in size than those found before their arrival, and having three, or more rarely four, nailholes on each side. These nail-holes were nearly square, and wider at the top or ground-surface than the bottom or foot-face. The heads of the nails were also square, to fit the holes, and projected more or less from the surface of the shoe. The points of the nails, when driven through the hoof, were cut off, and only enough of the nail left to double over and form a clench or clinch.' Examples of ​these shoes are to be found in the seals of Walter Marshall, and Ralph of Durham, already figured. Some years ago, at the formation of the London, Chatham, and Dover railway, in a cutting near Meopham, Kent, a shoe of this description (fig. 145) was disinterred.
* fig. 145
It is very heavy, large, and shaped as if for the foot of a mule. The nail-head yet remaining has been somewhat worn, yet enough is left to exhibit its peculiar square shape. The shoe appears to have been pulled off, as it is much twisted. The toe looks as if it had been slightly bent or 'curved' up, like the present French shoe, and there are four nails on each side. The calkins are solid, thick, and high, and altogether it is a clumsy shoe; measuring, as it does, 4+$^1$⁄$_2$ inches across the quarters, 5+$^5$⁄$_8$ inches long, and 1+$^1$⁄$_8$ inch wide in cover; and though much oxidized, weighing 18+$^1$⁄$_4$ ounces!
Another specimen is here shown from the excavations at Besançon, and which is supposed by M. Megnin to belong to the middle ages (fig. 146).
* fig. 146
And a curious example of the shod horse, in which the nail-heads and calkins are very ​conspicuous, is now also copied from a French manuscript of the Apocalypse, written in the 13th century. The prominence given to the armature on the horse's hoofs shows how important it was deemed (fig. 147).
* fig. 147
Another delineation will be found in a rare pamphlet printed in 1485, entitled 'Jacobi publici Florentini. Oratoris Institutio'.
In nearly all the manuscripts of this period, in which horses figure, their hoofs are represented as shod. We will give some additional examples of these presently.
Writers more frequently mention shoeing. Eustathius, who wrote a commentary on Homer, in the 12th century, is the first to mention the Greek horses of antiquity as shod, a statement we conclude to be erroneous, but which shows that Eustathius was well acquainted with the art. With the revival of learning, what may be designated veterinary medicine was again attracting ​attention, and the writers who previously treated of this branch of science, and were altogether silent regarding shoeing, now speak of it and its requirements.
Foremost among these was the Calabrian, Jordanus RufFus, Master of the Horse (Comes Marestalli) to the great Frederick, who lived in the 13th century. This hippiatrist appears to have held high rank at Frederick's Court, for in one manuscript he signs his testament, 'Ego Jordanus, magnus justitiarius Ruffus de Calabria imperialis Marescallus major interfui his et subscribi feci.' In the Harleian Codex of the British Museum is a manuscript in the Sicilian language, beginning, 'Izi cominza la libra di manischalchia compostu da lu Maestro Giordano Russo di Galicia, mariscalo del imperatore Federica.' Another codex is in the Damiani library at Venice, a Latin translation of which begins, 'Incipit liber manescalchias. Nui Messeri Jordan Russu de Calabria volimo insignari achelli chi avinu a nutricari cavalli secundu chi avimu imparatu nela manestalla de lu imperaturi Federicu chi avimu provatu e avimu complita qusta opira nelu nomu di deu, e di Santu Aloi.' The patron saint of farriers was thus, it appears, invoked to countenance his labours.
The only good edition to which I have had access, is that published at Bologna in 1561, with the tide, 'Il dottisimo libro non più Stampato delle Malscalzie del Cavallo, del Signor Giordano Rusto, Calaurese.' The work is curious, but by no means despicable; and his brief remarks on shoeing are sensible enough. After mentioning that it is useful to wash out the horse's mouth and rub it with powdered salt, particularly if the animal does not drink ​willingly; he recommends that the hoofs be shod with shoes of a convenient weight, round, and adapted to the shape of the feet. The shoe to be light, and narrow towards the extremity of the branches, as in proportion to the narrowness of the shoe at the heels would the horse's hoofs become hard and strong. The thicker the shoes of the young horse, so the more liability was there to the hoofs becoming weak and soft; and so long as horses continued to be shod in their youth, so would the hoofs become large and hard.
Veterinary medicine at this stage in the revival of the arts and sciences was almost, if not entirely, Italian, and the best and most original writers on it were natives of Italy. After Ruffus, the principal author on the diseases and management of the domestic animals at this period is Petrus de Crescentiis, of Bologna, a philosopher, lawyer, physician, and traveller. His work, written when he was seventy years of age (1307), had an immense success, treating, as it did, of every branch of agriculture; and ​though with respect to the maladies of the lower animals, he borrows largely from the Latin Scriptores Rei Rusticæ, and Jordanus Ruffus, yet he appears to have been an enlightened observer, and much less superstitious than the majority of medical men at that time. He describes several disorders the foot of the horse is liable to, and points out the difference between the hoofs of horses reared and employed in mountainous districts, and those bred in low-lying plains. When giving directions as to the management of the horse, he recommends that the shoes be round, light, and narrow, so that they might adhere firmly to the circumference of the feet. Thin shoes, he adds, render the horse agile, and to pare and lighten the hoofs makes them large and strong. When, however, new shoes are applied, and fastened on with either new or old nails, it is necessary the horse should rest, lest harm ensue.
Perhaps among the most noted of the 14th-century hippiatrists, stands Laurentius Rusius (Ruzzius, Russo, ​Rusius, Ruzo, de Ruccis, Rusé, Rugino, Rosso, and Riso—for by all of these names is he designated in the many editions of his writings), a veterinary surgeon of Rome (as he styles himself), and a friend of Cardinal Napoleon de Ursinis, who lived in the 13th and 14th centuries. His observations on the maladies of the lower animals, though similar to those of Ruffus, are, for the time in which they were written, remarkably exact, and on shoeing, though brief, they are yet reasonable. 'It is necessary to shoe horses with good and proper shoes, shaped like the hoofs; the more the extremities of the shoe—the heels, are narrow and light, the more easily will the horse lift his feet; and the narrower the shoe is, so much more will the horn grow. It is also advantageous to know, that the oftener we shoe a young horse, so rapidly does the horn become thin and weak; and, on the contrary, to accustom it to travel without shoes while it is young, is to make the hoofs larger and stronger.' In other chapters, the diseases of the foot, many of them arising from shoeing, are carefully described.
In the 11th century, I think we have the first written intimation that oxen were shod for travelling. Guibert de Nogent, a contemporary of Peter the Hermit, and who has so well and so eloquently described the almost morbid excitement attending the preaching of that worthy in favour of the Crusades and the rescue of Jerusalem, gives as an illustration, that of 'the rustic, who shod his oxen like horses, and placed his whole family on a cart; where it was amusing to hear the children, on the ​approach to any large town or castle, inquiring if that were Jerusalem.'
This allusion is curious, inasmuch as it informs us that oxen were shod, and, as if something very remarkable, like horses. It is well known that oxen cannot travel far with the continuous oval-shaped horse-shoe; the armature for the foot must be in two portions, one for the outer margin of each claw. Guibert, however, may only have referred to the manner of nailing on an iron plate on cloven hoofs, as very unusual.
It is not until the 13th century that we find any positive record of special buildings for shoeing, and also for treating horses medically. In 1202 there are two entries for shoeing in a booth: 'Pro Travillis et pro circulis et pro vectura duorum ferratorum lx. s.' 'Pro merreno ad tres Travallos ferratorum et uno ferrati et pro duvis xliii. s.' In a charter for about the year 1302, a place of this kind is also notified as a 'Travaillium.' 'In which street was placed a certain travaillium (workshop, from the French travail), for the use of the smith to shoe horses in, which was and had been called a travaillium, and was placed and allowed to be retained there by our command.' And in England, in 1235, during the reign of Henry III., ​Walter le Bruin or Brun, a farrier or maréchal, had a piece of land granted him in the Strand, in the parish of St Clement's Danes, London, whereon to erect a forge, on condition that he should render at the Exchequer, annually, for the same, a quit-rent of six horse-shoes, with the nails (62) thereunto belonging. This strange payment was made twice during the reign of Edward I., and, curiously enough, was continued so late as 1827 (and may be even now), at the swearing-in of the annually elected Sheriff of London and Middlesex, on the 30th September, to the representative of the Sovereign, for the said piece of ground, though it has long been city property. This was the origin of the odd custom of counting the horse-shoes and hob-nails.'
From the daily expense book of the 28th year of Edward I. (1299—1300), we learn that the pay of the smith was fourpence a day, and that horse-shoes were charged at ten shillings per hundred, and nails twentypence a thousand. Iron sold at fivepence per stone. In it also notice that the functions of the armourer and smith were divided, special workmen representing each of these crafts. In the same record we find an entry for divers instruments of farriery to shoe horses, which appear to have been sent to that monarch in the Holy Land: 'Diversa utensilia ferrator equorum qui missa fuerunt Regi in terra Sancta ut dicebatur.'
The draught-horse (equus ad tractandum or carrectarum) was as yet a somewhat rare animal, the state of ​the roads seldom allowing the passage of wheeled carriages.
The Court travelled on horseback, the ladies even being obliged to resort to this kind of conveyance. The 'equus dextrarius,' or war-horse, was in high favour, and kept only for state occasions or for battle; while the 'equus discopertus,' or hobelar, was used for quick travelling. The light cavalry soldiers, who rode these small horses or hobbies, were called hobelars. This convenient-sized creature was also that generally ridden in hawking and other sports of a like character, as it was hardier and more conveniently managed. All appear to have been regularly shod; and in the illuminated manuscripts of this period, the greatest pains is taken to represent the shoes and nails.
* fig. 148
This will be seen by referring to the annexed engraving (fig. 148), copied from the Louterell Psalter, perhaps one of the finest manuscripts in existence, and now in the possession of the Weld family, Lulworth Castle, Dorsetshire. It is supposed to belong to the 14th century, and is a most valuable document for reference with regard to the domestic history of that period in England.
The subject is a gentleman hawking, and mounted on ​one of these hobbies. The artist has exerted himself to show not only the shoes and nails, but in some of his illustrations he has even made manifest the latter in their passage through the hoof. The calkins and nailheads are certainly very massive and clumsy-looking, though there can be no doubt they would afford a powerful hold of the ground. The presence of calkins had, besides, another advantage for those who were inclined to resort to a stratagem like that already described when speaking of Spain. When Robert Bruce returned to London with King Edward in 1302 (some accounts say 1305), his associate, Cumyn, treacherously betrayed him; but a secret friend gave him due notice of his danger by a present of a purse and a pair of spurs. This hint the Scottish champion was shrewd enough to understand, and made his escape, as Hollingshed tells us, by ‘causing a smith to shoo three horses for him, contrarilie with the calking forward, that it should not be perceived which waie he had taken by the track of the horsses, for that the ground at that time was covered with snowe, he (Robert Bruce) departed out of London about midnight.’
Lest we forget to remember at the proper moment, it may be here stated, that a similar ruse was adopted by Duke Christopher of Würtemburg in 1530. When that nobleman fortunately freed himself by flight from the power of the Emperor Charles V., he reversed the position of his horse's shoes, and thus made his pursuers believe he was going in a contrary direction. ​ Iron horse-shoes were at this period, according to Mr Rogers, sold by the hundred, and nails by the thousand, as at present. In 1265, we find the former articles selling at Dover 225 for 5s. 5¼d. per hundred, and 1000 nails at 1s. 3d. a thousand; whereas at Odiham, in Hampshire, 84 were purchased for 5.s, 6½d., and 1000 nails at 1s. 1d. These prices vary considerably, but in increasing proportion up to 1398, when we find 26 foreshoes sell at Oxford for 16s. 8d., and 22 hind-shoes at 12s. 6d.; while nails at the same place, in 1390, were 2s. 6d. per hundred.
In the accounts and annals of farms and estates during the 13th and 14th centuries, it is shown that the chief expenditure incurred in the keep of horses was the cost of shoeing. In the earlier part of this period, shoes were occasionally made, it appears, out of the iron purchased by the chief bailiff, and fashioned by the village smith. But shoes were nearly always bought ready-made, and in considerable quantities. They must, indeed, have been very slight, and little more than tips; the necessity for strong shoes, in the absence of hard or well-metalled roads, not being so urgent as now-a-days. It is possible, also, that the hoofs of horses have in our time become less solid, in consequence of the continual paring and mutilation which the modern system of shoeing involves. If we compare the price of iron by the hundred with the cost of shoes, says Mr Rogers, and remember also that the charge of working iron was generally almost equal to that of the material, we shall find that the mediæval horse-shoe ​could not have possibly weighed more than half, and probably very often not more than the third of a pound. Traces are to be found of heavier shoes. Thus several of the entries in bailiffs' accounts, from 1265 to 1276 (unless we conclude that wrought iron was always dearer in the eastern counties, owing to the general enhancement of wages in a region then so favoured by manufacturing activity), seem to indicate stouter and heavier shoes than are ordinarily found. So marked is this difference on some occasions, that Mr Rogers was obliged to omit certain entries at very high prices from his calculations of the annual average, lest he should give a false impression as to the value of this ordinary manufacture in certain years. Thus, while particular shoes are returned from Ospringe in 1286, 1287, and 1288, at 3s. 4d. the hundred,—a rate which is very frequent in the 13th century,—others are quoted at 5s., 5s. 6d., and 8s. 6d., and are specially designated as 'great shoes.' These may have been like the specimen figured on page 392 ante. Similarly, the entries for the last year in which evidence is afforded, are shoes supplied for the saddle-horses of Merton College, and the price, it must be admitted, is very high. The Hornchurch return for the year 1396 is also excessive; but the purchase is made for the farm stud, and represents probably only that dearness which is found, even in those early days, in the vicinity of London. On the occasions when the kind of shoes are distinguished, a difference is generally made between the price of cart-horse and affer, or stott, shoes. The latter, Mr Rogers observes, were a breed of ponies used for the rougher kinds of husbandry, or for such work as that in which endurance and hardihood were more ​needed than strength. Sometimes, however, as in 1297, cart-horse shoes were less than stott shoes. It is probable, too, that the strength of the shoe varied with the soil and the work. Thus at Gamlingay, in 1343, the shoes of the cart-horse were dearer than those needed for ploughing horses. The theory given above, that the shoes were light, is supported by the fact that at Farley, in the year 1320, ox-shoes are quoted at little less price than horse-shoes. The range of prices for shoes, indicated by Mr Rogers's researches, is equally suggestive with that of any other commodities. In the first ninety years shoes are dearest in 1311—1320, though the price is not materially enhanced. Afterwards they fall again, and would have fallen still more markedly, were it not for the immediate results of the Great Plague occurring at that period. This visitation produces its effects at one place only in the year 1348—this being Boxley, where the price is at once nearly four times that at which purchases were made in 1339 and 1340; but afterwards the effect is universal. Shoes customarily worth only a halfpenny before, are instantly and permanently a penny, and the price never falls again. For when we consider how steadily the need increased for these articles, how universal was the smith's labour, and how the relative value of the commodity was governed by causes over which the interference of the legislature could exercise only a very partial control—if, indeed, it could effect any real control at all—we should be prepared to anticipate the result which actually ensued, that the price was doubled. Even here, however, we may trace the same phenomenon, adds Mr Rogers, which has so often occurred. Prices are higher in the decade 1371 — ​1380, and are lower afterwards. 'Were there sufficient evidence for the last ten years, the facts which I have been able to collect would, I am confident, have been varied in the averages, and the quotations in all likelihood would have to be put on the ten years at 8s.; instead of being, as I am constrained to return them, at the great price of 13s. 6½d. The causes to which the deficient information of the later part of the period must be ascribed, are: the change which takes place in the method of agriculture, and the change which the course of events had induced upon the condition of the smith. The reader will anticipate that the former cause consists in the fact, that the system of bailiff farming was gradually relinquished after the event of the plague. But accounts are not kept in so careful a manner. The dearth of hands had produced its effects on the inferior clergy, the scribes and accountants of the middle ages. Items which used to be carefully distinguished are lumped in one general sum—credited, for instance, to the bailiff, as the year's charge for shoeing. Services which used to be cheap and effectual, had now become dear and negligent; and such symptoms were apparent in the economy of agriculture, as designated that a radical alteration in the method of tenure was impending. And there are also indications that oxen, according to Walter de Henley's advice, were superseding horses in farm-work. The other cause is the change which comes over the condition of the artisan. Hitherto it was very seldom that such persons dealt in finished goods. As a rule, they were hired to do work on materials purchased by their employer; and in some occupations, as in the building trades, this purchase of ​materials continues for centuries after the time before us. Thus, although at a very early time horse-shoes were bought by the hundred at fairs and market-towns, they were also fashioned out of the bar-iron bought annually by the bailiff for the use of the farm. This revolution in the relations of employer and artisan was effected, of course, not only by the fact that the latter obtained better terms for his labour, but because he had become possessed of capital, was able to lay by a portion of his gains, and could therefore work for a future market.' 'Any person,' says the Professor, 'who studies, even superficially, a farm account at the beginning, and another at the end of the 14th century, must obtain indications of the change which has taken place in the habits and in the condition of the labouring classes. So, out of the gains which were thus amassed, temptations to spend coming but little in the way of the mediæval labourer, those estates were purchased on which the yeomanry of the 15th century lived in comfort.'
'Equally characteristic is the history of the price of horse-shoe nails. These articles were purchased at the same times and places with the shoes. Knowing what horse-shoe nails must have been, we can readily judge from the price at which they were purchased, what was the size of other nails. These nails, bought by the thousand, were made, it is probable, with broad heads, the grooved shoe being, considering the price of iron and the lightness of the plate, an invention of later times. But the nail must have been of length sufficient to pass through so much of the hoof as would serve to keep it tightly on, ​and it must have been of such temper as to insure its toughness and endurance. To judge by the price, the horse-shoe nail must have contained two-thirds more iron than the lath-nail, and about half as much as the broad nail. The price of these nails rises and falls evenly with that of horse-shoes. During the first ninety years, they are dearest in the years 1311-20, and though the price declines slightly after this time, it does not revert to the cheap rates of the thirteenth century. After the plague, the rise is instant and permanent, the rate being doubled, and remaining high, the dearest time being, as before, the decade 1371—1380. Evidence for the last ten years is wanting, but judging by the exactness with which the price of these articles follows that of horse-shoes, we might certainly affirm that if the latter stood at from 8s. 4d. to 8s. the hundred, the former would be about 2s. 6d. the thousand. The general rise on the average of the last forty years is not, indeed, quite so large as that of horseshoes, though it is upwards of 100 per cent.; but it will be remembered that the rate of horse-shoes for the last ten years is excessive, and the evidence insufficient.'
* fig. 149
It is necessary here to remark, that Richardson derives the word 'stott' from the Anglo-Saxon stod-hors, and as applied to oxen from the Swedish stut, Danish stud, a steer. The word has given rise to some discussion, it having been used for a very long time in Scotland as a designation for a steer, heifer, or bullock, and the notice in the above is thought by the antiquarian who quotes it, to mean heifer. Of this, however, there may be considerable doubt; as the term has been constantly applied in England to under-sized strong horses or cobs. In the 'Vision of Piers Plowman' (1362?) it occurs in this sense:
Grace of his goodnesse, gaf
Peers foure stottes.
And Chaucer, in his 'Canterbury Pilgrims,' says:
This Reevè sat upon a right good stot. That was all pomelee (dappled) gray, and highte Scot.
Signifying, I think, that the word came from beyond the Tweed. Sir David Lyndsay also applies it to a horse. On a part of the border of the so-called Bayeux tapestry, representing the landing of William the Conqueror and the battle of Hastings, a piece of needlework by some ascribed to Saxon embroiderers, there is a representation of a man driving a horse attached to a harrow—one of the earliest instances we have of horses being used in field-labour; but which was a common enough custom in the time of Richard II. ​Stow, for 1273, informs us that coal was not allowed to be burned in or near London, being 'prejudicial to human health,' and that smiths were even prohibited from its use, and obliged to burn wood. This may have materially influenced the cost of iron-work at this period. Chaucer, in the 'Canon Yeoman's' tale, frequently speaks of coals being used by the alchemist.
A great degree of interest attaches to the next two drawings of shoes belonging to this period, from the fact that the actual specimens are closely related to an incident which somewhat prominently marks the otherwise eventful reign of Edward II., and are melancholy souvenirs of the downfall of a brave English nobleman.
We have already noticed the grants of land bestowed on Henry de Ferrarius by William the Conqueror, and mentioned that among these was Tutbury, an estate situated on the Staffordshire side of the river Dove, which there forms the boundary between that county and Derbyshire.
Standing on a commanding eminence of gypsum rock, which may have been selected as a stronghold by the ancient Britons and Romans, and on which there certainly stood a fortification during the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy, but which was afterwards destroyed by the Danes, the castle of Tutbury was rebuilt on a much larger scale than before, by the Norman—farrier we had almost called him, and was a place of some importance in those days of family fortresses.
In 1269, this place, with his other possessions, was forfeited by Robert de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, and given by Edward I. to his brother Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, ​who dying in 1297, left it to his son Thomas, the second Earl of Lancaster, when the castle was still more beautified and improved, and made a general residence. In a short time, however, this nobleman embroiled himself with his nephew, Edward II., the next sovereign; for, becoming disgusted with the manner in which that monarch allowed himself to be swayed by his successive favourites, Gaveston and the two Spensers, and pitying the people who were the victims of his rapacity, as well as instigated by his own private wrongs, he, at the head of a number of barons, first remonstrated with his king, and afterwards took up arms in open rebellion. The consequence was a civil war, which for some time was carried on vigorously by both sides.
The king had advanced into the heart of the kingdom while the earl was in the north, and before the latter could intercept it, the royal army had penetrated nearly to Burton in Staffordshire. Here, by great exertion, the earl had been able to arrive before Edward, and occupied the town, situated on the western bank of the river Trent, which is here very deep. Lancaster determined to make a stand at this place, as it was the key to his castle of Tutbury; the long, narrow, and crooked bridge across the river being easy of defence, and so long as successfully held, preventing any approach, except in a round-about way, to the important stronghold.
Though deserted by the barons who had at first rebelled with him and had joined his standard, the earl might, nevertheless, have offered good fight, but, unluckily for him, a countryman had shown the king's army a ford about five miles above Burton; so while one portion ​menaced the town, another crossed the river and threatened the castle. The earl's position was now untenable, and he was obliged to fly to his apparently impregnable fortress. Tutbury is only about five miles from Burton, so that Lancaster soon reached his home, though scarcely had he got across the drawbridge before the royal forces were at the gate. It was soon discovered that to attempt defence was impossible, and to come out on the Staffordshire side quite impracticable; while the river Dove, at that time greatly flooded and scarcely fordable, and over which there was no bridge, appeared to cut him completely off from Derbyshire, through which he might have passed to his castle of Pontefract, in Yorkshire. Thus hemmed in, nothing was left but surrender or hazardous flight across the Dove.
The latter alternative was adopted; and after leaving his baggage and military chest in charge of his treasurer Leicester, with directions to convey them in safety, and as quickly as possible, to Pontefract, he and his followers made the attempt, and, in spite of the high floods, succeeded in gaining the opposite bank in safety.
Such, however, was not the fortune of Leicester's charge—the military chest, which contained all the money the earl had been amassing to pay his retainers and discharge the current expenses of the disastrous war he had undertaken. This servant, following his master at night, did all he could to convey the treasure safely from the castle, but in the confusion of getting down the steep hill and across the swollen river in the dark, with a fugitive panic-stricken guard and terrified waggoners, the chest ​and its contents were lost in the Dove, and the unlucky treasurer, compelled to fly before daylight discovered him, never after had an opportunity of returning to attempt their recovery.
The earl himself, deserted by those on whom he depended, was soon after betrayed into the hands of his enemies, who conducted him to Pontefract, where, after suffering the greatest indignities, as is generally the case with fallen greatness, his head was struck off, towards the end of March or beginning of April, 1322.
The subsequent troubles appear to have caused the loss of this treasure to be forgotten, and probably of the few who witnessed its immersion in the Dove none ever returned to Tutbury; so that the poor earl's money, which perhaps might have saved him his head, had he chanced to possess it before his capture, was destined to remain in the bed of the river undisturbed, except by the rushing waters, for more than five hundred years, and would in all likelihood have continued so, but for a curious chance.
This happened in June, 1831. In the long interval that had elapsed, the Dove had been spanned by two bridges; corn and cotton mills were erected on its banks near this spot; and the stream had been troubled with all manner of weirs and dams, cuts and alterations, but without revealing the secret it contained. On the 1st of June, in that year, however, the proprietors of the cotton mills having commenced the operation of deepening the river, with the object of giving a greater fall of water to the wheel, the workmen found among the gravel, about three-score yards below the present bridge, a few small ​pieces of silver coin, of a description they had never seen before.
Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., in referring to the history of this Earl of Lancaster, gives the following account of the finding of these coins: 'Mr Webb, the proprietor of the cotton mills at Tutbury, being desirous to obtain a greater fall for what is commonly termed the tail-water of the wheel which works the machinery of his mill, prolonged an embankment between the mill-stream and the river much farther below the bridge than it formerly extended; and as a part of his plan, it became requisite to remove a considerable quantity of gravel out of the bed of the river, from the end of his water-course as far up as the new bridge. While they were engaged in this operation, on Wednesday, the 1st of June, 1831, the workmen found several small pieces of silver coin about sixty yards below the bridge; as they proceeded up the river, they continued to find more; these were discovered lying about half-a-yard below the surface of the gravel, apparently as if they had been washed down from a higher source. On the following Tuesday the men left their work in the expectation of finding more coin, and they were not disappointed, for several thousands were obtained that day; as they advanced up the river they became more successful; and the next day, Wednesday, June the 8th, they discovered the grand deposit of coins from whence the others had been washed, about thirty yards below the present bridge, and from four to five feet beneath the surface of the gravel. The coins were here so abundant, that one hundred and fifty were turned up in a single ​shovelful of gravel, and nearly five thousand of them were collected by two of the individuals thus employed on that day; they were sold to the bystanders at six, seven, eight, or eight shillings and sixpence per hundred; but the next day a less quantity was procured, and the prices of them advanced accordingly. The bulk of the coins were found in a space of about three yards square, near the Derbyshire bank of the river. Upwards of three hundred individuals might have been seen engaged in this search at one time, and the idle and inquisitive were attracted from all quarters to the spot. Quarrels and disturbances naturally enough ensued, and the interference of the neighbouring magistrates became necessary.
'At length the officers of the Crown asserted the king's right to all coin which might subsequently be found in the bed of the river, since the soil thereof belonged to his Majesty in right of his duchy of Lancaster.'
The consequence was, that all persons were prohibited from collecting coin except those appointed by the Chancellor of the duchy, who, on behalf of the Crown, instituted a search on the 28th of June that lasted until the 1st of July. In this brief period more than 1500 additional coins were found, and then the excavation from which they were principally extracted was filled up and levelled over. The total number of coins thus found is supposed to have been, upon the most moderate computation, no less than 100,000.
Often those who found one of these pieces had much difficulty in detaching it from the gravel in which it had become imbedded. Having been for so long a period lying amid the soil which once formed the bed of the ​stream, and on which the water had gradually deposited stratum upon stratum of sand and pebbles, the mass had become a hard substance, scarcely yielding in solidity to stone itself, in which coin after coin appeared to form some of the original component parts. Pieces of iron from the waggon or chest had also, in the process of oxidation, become pulpy, and still firmer bound and increased the strange conglomerate.
The earl's chest appears to have contained some curious and varied specimens of the currency then in use. Besides a number of sterlings of the Empire, Brabant, Lorraine, and Hainault, and the Scotch coins of Alexander II., John Baliol, and Robert Bruce, there was found a complete English series of those of the first Edward (fig. 150), who, at various times, had his money struck at several towns in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
* fig. 150
There were also specimens of all the prelatical coins of Edward I., Edward II., as well as many of Henry III.,—both of his first and second coinage,—and a few of the most early of Edward II. On the whole, a finer museum of English, Scotch, and Irish coins was never before, under any circumstances, thrown open to the inspection of the antiquary and historian. Yet it seems very surprising that the English coins found should, with only one exception, have been of the same small size and value. This exception was a very beautiful coin of silver, about the size of half-a-crown, and of the reign of Edward I. Nor is it less surprising that the chest should have contained no jewellery or other valuable articles, one ring alone ​being found in the river, which was probably lost by some one of the earl's officers in fording. It was rudely chased, and bore within the circle the motto ' Spreta vivant.'
* fig. 151
Fortunately for our subject, a mass of this ferro-argentine conglomerate was purchased from the finder, and is now in the possession of Llewellynn Jewitt, Esq., of Winster Hall, near Matlock, Derbyshire.
* fig. 152
In this is most wonderfully imbedded several horse-shoes of the shape here delineated, and which have been most kindly drawn and engraved for me by that gentleman, as although they were the most perfect specimens, they were yet too friable to travel safely for my inspection (fig. 151, 152).
​In all probability, on the eventful night on which the treasure was lost, the waggon and horses conveying it were also left to perish in the Dove.
From the examination I have been able to make of the other shoes, it appears that the horses were small. One specimen would, when perfect, have been about 4¼ inches wide, and 4½ long. It had a small raised (not rolled-over) calkin on one side; only three nail-holes were visible on each branch, and the shoe altogether was very narrow and light, as if it had been worn by a saddle-horse. The iron appeared to be fibrous and of excellent quality. Another half-shoe was a trifle smaller, had three holes on each side, and the calkin was formed by doubling over the end of the thin branch, as in the Chedworth and Gillingham specimens. Completely encased in a compact slab of rusty-coloured conglomerate, a portion of which has been removed, is one more example that may have been a little larger, though it is still a small shoe, and would fit a horse between 14 and 15 hands high; while a fragment of another, though about the same dimensions, had a little more cover or breadth, and probably was worn by one of the waggon-horses.
None of these show any traces of toe-clips; all have the even border of the present shoe, and their holes are the ordinary quadrilateral apertures with which we are now familiar; they have not been fullered or widely stamped for the nail-heads. Both surfaces appear to have been plane; and altogether the shoes are not of a bad type, but one that, if the hoofs were not mutilated by paring, could do a horse but little harm.
In the interesting chronicles of Froissart, we find many ​interesting details about shoeing. Describing the first attempted invasion of Scotland by Edward II., he gives us an instance of the importance this art was assuming, and what an amount of inconvenience might be apprehended when circumstances prevented its being attended to. When the army of that king had marched as far as Newcastle-on-Tyne, the cavalry were in a miserable plight, and apparently ineffective. 'It never seased to rayne all the hoole weeke, whereby theyre saddels, pannels, and counter-syngles were all rottyn and broke, and most part of their horses hurt on their backs: nor they had not wherewith to shoo them that were unshodde.' When the troops reached Durham, however, they were obliged to rest there for two days, 'and the oste rounde about, for they coulde not all lodge within the cite, and theyre horses ivere neice shoode, and set out on theyre march to York.'
In these chronicles, embracing as they do, the latter part of the reign of Edward II., and terminating with the coronation of Henry IV., there is repeated mention of shoeing, and particularly in the wars which England was then waging on the Continent. In the great army Edward III. carried into France in 1359,—the greatest, according to Froissart, that had ever left England, we find a completeness in equipment and material which is somewhat astonishing when we look at the present condition of our army and consider its fitness for a continental war, particularly in the matter of land transport. Our warrior king appears to have omitted nothing that could render success impossible. On arriving at Calais, he ​'took the field with the largest army and best-appointed train of baggage-waggons that had ever quitted England. It was said there were upwards of 6000 carts and waggons, which had all been brought with him.' Describing the order of march, Froissart goes on to say that 'in the rear of the king's battalion was the immense baggagetrain, which occupied two leagues in length: it consisted of upwards of 5000 carriages, with a sufficiency of horses to carry the provisions for the army, and those utensils never before accustomed to be carried after an army—such as hand-mills to grind their corn, ovens to bake their bread, and a variety of other necessary articles. . . . . There were also in this army of the King of England, 500 pioneers with spades and pickaxes, to level the roads and cut down trees and hedges, for the more easily passing of the carriages. . . . . I must inform you that the King of England and his rich lords were followed by carts laden with tents, pavilions, mills, and forges, to grind their corn and make shoes for their horses, and everything of that sort which might be wanting.' This appears to have been the first occasion on which field forges for shoeing horses accompanied an army, as well as ovens to bake the soldiers' bread. The introducer of these, as well as of artillery, appears to have even made an approach towards the employment of pontoons not very unlike, so far as material is concerned, those which are now being brought into use in the Royal Engineers; for we read ​that 'there were on these carts many vessels and small boats, made surprisingly well of boiled leather.'
By a statute of 1350 (2, c. 4, 25 Edward III.), it appears that the farrier was yet designated in the Norman French, then fashionable in legal and court language, the 'Ferrour des Chivaux;' and with a number of other' craftsmen, such as saddlers, spur-makers, armourers, &c., was regularly sworn-in before the justices to do and use his craft in a proper manner, and to confine himself to it.
Gloucester has been alluded to on several occasions not only as a repository of antique horse-shoes, but also as a town celebrated for its iron trade from time immemorial — a circumstance due to its proximity to the mineral districts of the Forest of Dean.
* fig. 153
appears to have been carried on in it for a long time prior to the Norman conquest; and local tradition has it that the royal farrier, a rather important personage in his way, resided in that city. However this may be, it is certain that horse-shoes and nails must have been looked upon as important articles in the reign of King Edward III., and have held a prominent place in the crafts of the town, as the corporation seal of that epoch—for an impression of which I am indebted to Mr Fryer, town-clerk of Gloucester—exhibits the royal effigy reared upon a lion couchant, and surrounded by a number of these emblems of farriery. The annexed drawing (fig. 153) represents this curious memento of days passed away. It is the exact size of the ​seal, which bears the inscription, S. Edwardi: Reg: Angl: Ad: Recogn: Debitor: Apud: Gloucester:
Connected with this period, it may be noted that a few years ago a large number of shoes were collected on the farm of West Nisbet, Berwickshire, which is supposed to be the site of the battle of Nisbet Muir, fought in 1355, between the English and Scots. No description has been given of these relics, save that they were of an uncommonly small size; and I have been unable to trace their whereabouts, though in all probability they were consigned to the metallurgical operations of the village blacksmith, and converted into defences for the hoofs of the larger and more peaceably designed steeds of the 19th century.
* fig. 154
It is not until a period bordering on the 14th or ​15th century, or perhaps much later, that we find evidences of the employment of the grooved or fullered shoe in England; and then we can only infer that it was imported from Germany and the Low Countries. This is somewhat remarkable, if we consider that this kind of plate is very ancient on the continent, M. Quiquerez tracing it back to the 5th century, and the Emperor Napoleon allotting it even to the era of the conquest of the Gauls by Julius Cæsar. We may entertain some doubt of the latter being correct however, as M. Megnin has examined these Alesia specimens, and found many, if not all, with the undulating border. Shoes, we have seen from Mr Rogers's History, were largely bought in England ready made, and by the hundred, and many of these may have been imported. In Mercer's History of Dunfermline, it is stated that in the 15th century, Flemish horse-shoes were in demand in Scotland: 'Flanders was the great mart in those times, and from Bruges chiefly, the Scots imported even horse-shoes, harness, saddles, bridles, cart-wheels,' &c.
* fig. 155
* fig. 156
Another specimen, found in excavating for a sewer in Walworth road, London (fig. 156), in 1825, is very similar in shape and character. It was discovered at a depth of 10 feet, and from the fashion of a buckle procured with it, is assigned by Mr Syer Cuming to the first half of the 17th century; though I am inclined to give it an earlier date. It is of large size, with a wide surface grooved or fullered very near the margin, and apparently had eight nail-holes. The heels were furnished with thin calkins, and near one of them occurs the letters H I. A shoe of the same kind was dug from a depth of 12 or 14 feet, in making a sewer in Kennington Lane, London. From their scarcity, they do not appear to have been in very great repute, and are found along with the square-holed shoe.
The period of Edward III. and his gallant son, the ​Black Prince, was the most glorious, perhaps, in the annals of chivalry. Then, gentlemen scorned the idea of fighting otherwise than on horseback, and the universal motto of the knighthood of Europe was 'Tout l'amor, tout à l'honor;' then the squire, during his final period of probation, groomed, trained, and shod his own horses; practised leaping, running, and mounting on horseback, clad in all his armour, and resolutely attacked the quintain; and the most menial offices were raised to an honourable degree by the dignity of the person who performed them. But of all the services rendered by the squire to the knight, the most important were naturally those which were connected directly or indirectly with the grand object of the lives of both, war. 'When the knight mounted his horse, the squires of his body held his stirrup; and other squires carried the various pieces of his armour, such as the brassards, the gauntlets, the helmet, and the buckler, on the road behind him. With regard to the cuirass, or hauberk, the knight was no less careful of its preservation than the Greek and Roman soldiers were of their bucklers. Other squires bore the pennon, the lance, and the sword. When only on a journey, the knight rode a short-tailed, ambling-paced horse—a palfrey or a courser; and the war-horses were led by the squires, who by always leading them in their right hand, obtained for them the name of "dextriers." The war-horse was delivered to the knight on the appearance of an enemy, or when he was about entering the field of battle: this was what they called "mounting the great horse." '
When travelling, the squire carried his master's ​helmet resting upon the pommel of his saddle; and when preparing for fight, this helmet and all the other parts of his arms, offensive and defensive, were given him by the different squires, who had them in their keeping; all evincing equal eagerness in assisting him to arm. By this means they were taught the art of arming themselves on a future day, and with the despatch and caution necessary for the protection of their persons. It demanded much skill and ability to place together and fasten the joints of the cuirass, and the other pieces of armour; to fit and lace the helmet upon the head with correctness; and to nail and rivet carefully the visor or ventail. The burgesses and yeomen, who were not by the rules of chivalry permitted to enter the lists as combatants at jousts and tournaments, nor to appear mounted, used in England to tilt on foot against a large wooden shield on which a horse-shoe was painted. In a manuscript in the Bodleian Library (No. 264, and dated 1344), there are delineations of both the fixed and movable quintain, upon each of which is a large horse-shoe remarkable for its equal breadth, the ends of the branches being turned out and somewhat upwards, and from their being pierced with nail-holes throughout their entire length. This is indeed the form of shoe which, in heraldry, according to Guillim, is borne by the families of Borlace, Cripps, Crispe, Ferrers, Randall, and Shoyswell.
The very heavy armour worn by man and horse at ​this period, and even up to the 16th century, necessitated the employment of horses more like our lumbering draught breed than chargers, and these were first obtained from Lombardy. Their excellence is described by Chaucer in the 'Squire's Tale':
' Great was the press that swarmèd to and fro,  To gazen on this horse that standeth so;  For it so high was, and so broad and long,  So well proportionèd for to be strong,  Right as it were a steed of Lombardy:—  Therewith so hoarsely and so quick of eye  As it a gentle Polish courser were;  For certes from his tail unto his ear  Nature nor Art could him not amend  In no degree, as all the people ween'd.'
But the Flemish horse, the probable progenitor of our heaviest breeds, was at an early period in high repute as a war-horse, and adapted to carry the enormous loads imposed upon him, when pace was not so much an object as strength to bear weight and withstand the shock of an encounter with couched lances. These horses were oftentimes severely tested before final acceptance as fit for the fray; and strong large shoes, with projecting calkins and nail-heads, were not only an indispensable necessity for ordinary duty, but for the more important contests in the field, where a good grip of the turf by the horse's feet was as requisite as a firm seat on its back. This is well illustrated in the case of the redoubtable Châtelain of Waremme, who, in 1325, was the leader of the Awans, a powerful faction in Belgium. He was a man of such gigantic bulk, that, when he was encased in his armour, it required the assistance of two strong esquires to lift him into the saddle. His friends, on the morning of a great ​battle with an opposing faction—the Waroux—expressed to him their fear that he was too heavily armed, but De Waremme replied, 'Have no fear, for I swear to you, by God and St George, that since it has required two men to seat me on my good steed Moreal, it shall take at least four to make me get off again.' And this was no idle vaunt, as the events of the day proved.
Another gigantic warrior who fought for the Awans was the Sire de Hemricourt. The strength of limb and massiveness of frame of this man were such that, except his stirrup-leathers broke, it was impossible to unhorse him; and in confirmation of his prowess, the following story is told: Being engaged as one of fifty knights chosen to fight on the side of the King of Sicily, against an equal party for the King of Arragon, a war-horse was sent to him by the king to ride on the day of battle. But Hemricourt, like the champion of Israel in the choice of his weapons, would not trust his steed till he had tried him. He therefore mounted, and, accompanied by some friends and attendants, rode out into the country, and, coming to a large lime-tree, he got off his horse, and made his squires fasten his girths as he directed. He then mounted again, and having had his legs tightly tied to the girths, he seized a thick branch of the tree with his right hand, and drove his spurs into his courser's flanks; but in spite of all its efforts, the horse was unable to get away. Hemricourt, therefore, sent back the animal to the king, saying that it wanted both strength and courage, and was dull to the spur. The king then sent him another, which he submitted to the same test, and the struggle between man and horse was long and violent. ​At length, owing to the girths and the poitrail breaking, the steed got away, leaving the knight and his saddle suspended from the tree. This horse the Sire de Hemricourt kept, though an ignominious fate awaited it. When the knight and his associates came to the place appointed for the combat, the Arragonese did not appear, and the King of Sicily, taking advantage of the circumstance, meanly required that the horses should be returned. When the messenger came to De Hemricourt, 'What,' cried he, 'has the king, your master, only lent me this carrion to defend his honour at the risk of my life—I who am no subject of his? Is it thus he shows his gratitude? By the eyes of God, he shall have his present back again, but in such a state that no knight shall ever mount him again with honour!' So saying, he had the horse brought out of the stable, and, with his own hands cutting off the mane and tail, desired the groom to lead him away.
'In those times of war,' writes the old author, Hamericourt,' and even ten years after the peace was made, knights and squires of honour rode great horses (d'astriers) or coursers (corseirs) of the greatest value they could procure, and they had very high tourneying saddles without foresaltiers. They were covered with caparisons wrought in embroidery with their armorial blasons. They were armed with breast-plates with good armour of thin iron pieces, and upon the plate they had rich wardcoats bearing their blasons. Each had a helmet upon his ​bacinet with a handsome crest; and several lords, knights, and others had beneath the drapery of their caparisons ringed mail for their horses.' And in a manuscript work entitled the 'Guerre des Awans et des Warons,' recording the party wars among the people of Liege at this time, the horse-shoe is described as 'large fer a cheval ot, a talons moult crochus.'
The 'great horse,' the arms and armour, and the large shoes with high calkins, are well depicted in the German knight painted by Lucas Cranach in the 15th century (fig. 157).
fig. 157
Though horses were always extremely numerous in the Scottish armies, yet they were seldom, if ever, used for agricultural purposes; ploughing being generally performed by oxen.
For a long period, much attention had been paid to breeding good horses. So early as the 13th century, we find Roger Avenel, Lord of Eskdale, possessing a stud in that valley. Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, in preparation for his departure to the Holy Land (A.D. 1247), sold to the Monks of Melrose his stud of brood mares in Lauderdale, for the considerable sum of one hundred marks sterling. ​Alexander III. had several establishments for rearing horses, to be used in hunting as well as in war.
I cannot find any record of the price of shoes in Scotland at this period. It is merely mentioned that in 1488, a dozen horse-shoes, two plough-irons, and the iron mountings of two ploughs which had been stolen, were valued at twenty shillings. And in the Thane of Cawdor's Western Journey in 1591, there is an entry in his journal of expenses to the effect, that at Glasgow, one of the items in the host's bill was 'giffin to the smyth for your broun geldin's schoun xiij s iiij d.
The English statutes of the reign of Edward VI. (1547-52) give us an approximate idea of the size of the horses commonly in use in England and Scotland. The stallions allowed to be imported into England for breeding purposes were to be fourteen hands high, and the mares fifteen hands.
So important did Henry VIII., the father of Edward VI., consider the possession of large and good horses, that he devised a law by which it was intended that none but these should be kept in the country, fixing a standard of value for that purpose, and regulating that the lowest stallion should be fifteen hands high, and the mares thirteen hands; and before they had arrived at their full growth, no stallion at two years old, under fourteen hands and a half, was permitted to run on any forest, moor, or ​common where there were mares. At Michaelmas tide, the neighbouring magistrates were ordered to 'drive' all forests and commons, and not only destroy such stallions, but all the 'unlikely tits,' whether mares, geldings, or foals, which they might deem not calculated to produce a valuable breed. He moreover ordained, that in every deer-park, in proportion to its size, a certain number of mares, at least thirteen hands high, should be kept; and that all his prelates and nobles, and 'all those whose wives wore velvet bonnets,' should keep stallions for the saddle, at least fifteen hands high.
The 'delicate stratagem' of shoeing a troop of horses with felt on particular occasions, as hinted at by Shakespeare, was tolerably well realized at least half a century before the immortal bard had made any progress in establishing his fame, and from the following incident he may have derived the idea he afterwards introduced into 'King Lear.' In Lord Herbert's 'Life of Henry VIII.,' it is stated that that monarch, while in France, 'having feasted the ladies royally for divers days, departed from Tourney to Lisle (October 13, 1513), whither he was invited by the Lady Margaret, who caused there a juste to be held in an extraordinary manner; the place being a large room raised high from the ground by many steps, and paved with black square stones like marble; while the horses, to prevent sliding, were shod with felt or flocks (the Latin words are feltro sive tomento), after which the ladies danced all night.'
It is supposed that in the Guildhall of London, on the occasion of the marriage of Katharine of Aragon ​(afterwards wife of Henry VIII.), and Arthur, Prince of Wales, the floor being of marble, and a tournament taking place on it, the horses were shod with felt.
fig. 158
The one we select (fig. 158) exhibits this characteristic; and it will be observed that the shoes are yet very clumsy, and have the calkins and nail-heads very large, to afford a firm grasp of the ground. The nails appear to be four on each side of the shoe. ​From specimens I have examined belonging to this period, it might be concluded that the weight of the shoes continued gradually to increase, while the sizes and forms occur in greater variety. Heavy armour and the tilting-lance had not yet gone out of fashion, as the projecting nail-heads and calkins sufficiently indicate. Some curious specimens of shoes can be seen on the feet of the wooden horses in the armour-gallery of the Tower of London; these, I understand, belong to Henry VIII.'s reign.
It is somewhat astonishing that no toe-clips to prevent displacement of the shoes have yet appeared. The specimen found at a depth of ten feet in the Walworth sewer works in 1825, along with the bones of a horse, was probably made at this period. It has four nails on the outer branch, and apparently only three on the inner, which is much narrower towards the heel, as is often the case now-a-days. There are calkins on both branches, and the nail-head in the last inside hole projects nearly three-eighths of an inch from the surface of the shoe (fig. 159).
* fig. 159
With the total extinction of the French language in Britain, the designation of 'Maréchal' also disappeared, or was used but very rarely. The shoer of horses was only known by that of 'farrier,' a term that had, as we have seen, been employed for centuries, and which was derived, no doubt, from the ferreus faber of the Latins, or the fabbro ferrario or ferraro of the Italians. In Queen Elizabeth's annual expenses—civil and military, we find that the Master of ​the Horse had in his gift, among many others belonging to his office, that of a Serjeant-Farrier at 1s. 1d. per diem, and three Yeomen-Farriers at 6d. And numerous instances of the newly revived name are to be discovered in writings of this and later ages. Chapman, in his translation of the 'Iliad,' has it:
So took she chamber with her son, the God of Ferrary.
And thus resolv'd, to Lemnos she doth hie, Where Vulcan works in heavenly Ferrarie.
The value of shoeing yet held a high place in equestrianism and among equestrians, and much importance was attached to shoes, either as relics, or for purposes of display. We have already seen to what an extent this was carried at Okeham; it was also in vogue elsewhere, and often gave rise to strange customs which continued to a late period. For instance, in the Preston Pilot for 1834, it is mentioned 'that a large assembly congregated for the purpose of witnessing the renewing of the horseshoe at the Horse-shoe corner, Lancaster, when the old shoe was taken up and a new one put down, with 1834 engraved on it. Those who assembled to witness the ceremony were entertained with nut-brown ale, &c.; afterwards they had a merry chairing, and then retired. In the evening they were again entertained with a good substantial supper. This custom is supposed to have originated at the time John O'Gaunt (third son of Edward I.) came into the town upon a noble charger, which lost its shoe at this place. The shoe was taken up and fixed in the middle of the street, and has ever since been replaced with a ​new one every seventh year, at the expense of the townsmen who reside near the place.'
Examples of ostentatious extravagance in horse-shoes are numerous in the middle and succeeding ages. During the Roman period, we have already remarked that attempts at display in this particular direction were made by the wife of Nero and others, when golden or gilded soleæ were fastened on the feet of mules or horses. Gold and silver shoes and nails were fashionable, it appears, among the wealthy who were ostentatiously inclined, to so late a period as the 17th century. When Boniface, Marquis of Tuscany, one of the wealthiest princes of his time, went in 1083, to meet Beatrix, mother of the famous Matilda, marchioness of Tuscany, who married Godfrey of Lorraine, his escort was so grandly equipped, that instead of iron, the horses had silver shoes and nails, and when any of these came off they were the property of those who picked them up.
Qui dux cum peregret illo,
Ornatos magnos secum tulit atque caballos, Sub pedibus quorum chalybem non ponere solum
Jusserat, argentum sed ponere, sic quasi ferrum
Esse repercussum clavum voluit quoque nullum, Ex hoc ut gento possent reperire quis esset. Cornipedes currunt, argentum dum resilit, tunc
Colligitur passim, passim reperitur in agris,
A populo terræ testans quod dives hic esset.
Bartholomeus Scriba, in his Annales Gennenses, for the year 1230, asserts that a certain man, named Ermemolinus, gave eight thousand bizantines to Genoa, as a mark of his affection and friendship; and with this money the ​very best horse that could be procured was to be purchased, and presented from him to the community of that town, covered with the best gold, and shod with silver shoes (ferri pedatus clapponis argenteis); which horse or destrier (charger) was bought and led through the state of Genoa, as a remembrance of his noble act, robed in a cloth of gold, and wearing silver shoes {clapponis argenteis).'
Giovanni Villani, the Italian historian, who lived in the 14th century, in his writings speaks of horses adorned with bridles of gold and shoes of fine silver: 'Havendo ornato il suo cavallo di freno d'oro, e ferrato di fine argento.'
The 'Roman de Rose,' a French romance of the 12th century, speaks of gilt or golden shoes:
Pour fere gens parler de foi, Fist tous les quatre fers dorer
Ne vout mie dire Ferrer.
William of Tyre, for the year A.D. 1130, in describing Boemond, a brother of Robert Guiscard, Count of Apulia, and who was assigned the principality of Antioch after the first Crusade, relates how 'he sent to a distinguished nobleman, through a friend of his, a white palfrey shod with silver shoes (argento ferratum), and a beautiful bridle ornamented with silver.'
Johannis Bromton, describing the journey of Duke Robert to the East, states that at Rome he placed a valuable mantle on the statue of Constantine, putting to shame the Romans, who refused to bestow one even in many years. 'He rode, also, a certain mule whose shoes ​were made of gold (auri fecit ferrari), and prohibited his servants from picking these up when they fell off.'
In the 11th century, the first Norwegian king, Oluf Kyrre, the Quiet (1066—1087), introduced many new and extravagant customs into his country. Mr de Capell Brooke, describing them, informs us that 'the former inclination of the Norwegians to magnificence universally increased. Silken sails, golden shoes for their horses, cushions of down with silk hangings, silken hoods embroidered with silver, gilded helmets, etc., were almost necessary to those who sought the Court.'
In the Saga of Sigurd Jorsalafar, the Pilgrim of Jerusalem, or Crusader, who reigned in Norway in 1103, it is told that he had his horse shod with golden shoes when he rode into Constantinople, on his way to the Holy Land, and so managed that one of the shoes came off in the streets, but none of his men were allowed to regard it.
We have elsewhere given other examples of this silly fashion at this epoch.
Even so late as 1616, we read that James Hayes, afterwards Lord Doncaster, an English ambassador, when he made his public entry into Paris acted in a similar extravagant manner. 'Six trumpeters and two marshals, in tawny velvet liveries, completely suited, laced all over with gold (richly and closely laid), led the way: the ambassador followed, with a great train of pages and footmen in the same rich livery, encircling his horse. And some said (how truly I cannot assert) the ambassador's ​horse was shod with silver shoes, lightly tackt on; and when he came to a place where persons or beauties of eminency were, his very horse prancing and curvetting in humble reverence threw his shoes away, which the greedy understanders scrambled for, and he was content to be gazed on and admired till a farrier, or rather the argentier, in one of his rich liveries, among his train of footmen, out of a tawny velvet bag took others and tackt them on, which lasted till he came to the next troup of grandees; and thus, with much ado, he reached the Louvre.'
At a still later period, we find Duke Eberhard of Würtemberg causing his dead charger to be skinned and stuffed, and its hoofs shod with gold shoes, before being set up at Stuttgart. The creature had saved his master's life by swimming with him at the battle of Hochstadt, 13th August, 1704; but was accidently shot eight days afterwards, through the carelessness of one of the duke's followers.
Von Tschudi mentions that during the brilliant period of the Spanish domination in Peru, like signs of wealth and foolish display were in vogue among the conquerors. Incredible sums were frequently expended on carriages and mules; and very often the tires of the caleza wheels and the shoes of the mules were of silver instead of iron. A Tartar song of the 14th century causes a Mongol khan to say, 'Bid the horses be put to my golden chariot, and let them be shod with golden shoes and silver nails.'
The liberality of the knights during the hey-day of ​chivalry often rose to as fantastic heights as in this extravagant display of James Hayes. For instance, when Alexander III. of Scotland repaired to London, attended by a hundred knights, at the time of the coronation of Edward I., the whole party, as soon as they had alighted, let loose their steeds, all most richly caparisoned, to be scrambled for by the multitude. This was probably new to the English chivalry, and no doubt startled them not a little: five, however, of the English nobles immediately followed the example set them.
In the 16th century we have a complete treatise—the first, on shoeing, from the pen of Cæsar Fiaschi, a masterly production of its kind, and in which no less than 35 chapters are devoted to this subject. From the care with which they are written, the sound sense that pervades many of them, the faculty of observation, and the great number of shoes devised to meet certain wants, we conclude that this artist was no ordinary workman, but an enthusiast in hippology—a man of talent, and a scholar. His masterly production forms the basis of nearly all the treatises subsequently written on horse-shoeing. The space at our disposal permits but a very limited notice of its contents. The first chapter, which serves as an introduction, makes known that 'there are found to-day very few good ​farriers (maréschaux): and yet among these there are some who more frequently think of profit and ease to themselves, than pay any regard to the wants and conveniences of the horses they shoe. So that if the horseman, because of his ignorance, is obliged to submit to the opinion of his maréschal, it will very often happen that he will see his horses lamed (enclouez) or badly shod, or otherwise inconvenienced: things due, as we witness every day, to the carelessness, ignorance, or malice of the farriers. Seeing, then, that the hoofs are the parts which support the whole of the body, and consequently bear all its weight, it is all the more necessary that the cavalier should be careful in having them well shod, and, besides, well attended to.'
Chapter II. contains advice as to the colour of the horn,—pour cognoistre la bonté et malice d'icelle. 'The black horn is the best.'
Chapter III. treats of the differences between the fore and hind feet, and also between the heels and toes of the feet. The heels of the fore-feet are the most sensitive, and need great care because they bear nearly the whole weight and strain. So that in shoeing horses, the nails must not come near them; and for the same reasons care must be taken not to drive the nails near the toes of the hind-feet, which are also the most sensitive parts. To do all in our power to protect them, the shoes applied must neither be too much curved nor yet too flat, but selected with care and good judgment.
Chapter IV. explains the manner in which the fore and hind feet should be armed.
Chapter V. speaks of the calkins (crampons), ​frost-nails (clous à glace), catches (crestes), points (barbettes), and rings (annelets), sometimes added to the fore-shoes. 'The calkins are useless on the fore-shoes, and they are even hurtful to the nerfs (tendons) of the limb, and cause the whole body to suffer pain. When we travel (chevanche) in mountainous or stony countries, it is far better to use a Turkish shoe, which protects the heels like a shield. The shoe to which is attached false nails (clous bastards), not so high (in the head) as frost-nails, does not slip; the calkined shoe is apt to wound the horse when ridden; the calkin à l'Aragonaise is less dangerous. . . . All other accessories, such as frost-nails, crests, barbettes, and annelets, ought not to be applied until after due deliberation, for they are often more hurtful than useful.'
Chapter VII. is devoted to the way in which the heels and the frog (cartilage) should be pared, and the hoof otherwise managed. 'The heel, with the cartilage or tendron, named in Italian the "fetton" (frog), particularly in the fore-feet, should be moderately pared or opened (ouvert), according to the character of the hoofs; if these are not good, care should be taken not to weaken them too much by too great opening. . . . Besides, the cavalier should have removed from the toes of his horse's feet as much horn as may be necessary to give them a proper shape, which may easily be discovered by putting the foot to the ground.'
Chapter IX. relates to the form which the fore-shoes should have. Usually, the fore-shoe should not project beyond the toe of the hoof, except this part has been ​broken and worn; but it is advantageous that it should project a little beyond the foot from the quarters back, so as to preserve the horn there; and behind the foot it should not be short, but exact and equal to the extremity of the heel, for if it surpass the heel the horse will likely forge (click or strike) with the hind feet; and if too short, if the heels are weak and tender, the animal may suffer pain and injury. In the next chapter, the same observations are made with regard to the hind-feet. In the eleventh chapter we have the mode of adjusting the shoe to the hoof. 'The shoe should be so fitted that the foot may suffer in no way through the carelessness of the farrier—that is to say, the hot shoe should only be applied to the hoof for as long a period as may be necessary to fit it well'
The nails are described in the following chapter. 'The nails ought to be large, moderately long, and neither flattened, hammered, or otherwise hardened. With ordinary horses eight or nine is the usual number; and with coursers or "Frisons," ten, and sometimes more. I do not wish to deny that with some hoofs six or seven nails are sufficient, but there are few of these. When the number is odd, the majority of the nails should go to the outside of the foot, which is the least sensitive.'
Chapter XIII. speaks of the bordure or pancette, sometimes added to the shoe, and which was nothing but a very wide sole. The other chapters up to the twenty-second, are devoted to the characters of various kinds of hoofs, and how to arm them. This chapter mentions the shoes necessary for young horses which, having been ​reared in marshy lands, have the frogs diseased. 'Employ the half-shoe (fer à lunette); the heels and neighbouring parts will become hard, and the shoulders and arms will be brought better into play. Light work, but not on bad roads. Only apply these shoes for some months.'
The remaining chapters are devoted to various kinds of shoes, suitable to different varieties of hoofs, or horses whose manner of going was defective; as well as the method of shoeing vicious horses. The figures of shoes he gives are 20 in number. No. 1. Fore-shoe without calkin (fig.
inner border, and seated like the English shoe (fig. 166). 8. Shoe with buttons, or raised catches, on the inner branch, and thickened on the heel of the same side (fig. 167). 9. A shoe which has the inside heel and quarter much thicker and narrower than usual (fig. 168). 10. A shoe with crests or points towards the ground surface on the toe and quarter, and barbettes at the heels (fig. 169). 1 1. A shoe with the calkins doubled over, and provided with rings (fig. 170). 12. The foot surface of a shoe with the heels turning up towards the foot (fig. 171). 13. Shoe with two calkins (fig. 172). 14. A bar shoe (fig. 173). 15. A jointed shoe, to suit any sized foot (fig. 174). 16. A jointed shoe without nails, and secured by the lateral border and the heel-screw (fig. 175). 17. A hind-shoe with calkins (fig. 176). 18. A shoe with one of the branches greatly thickened at the heel (fig. 177). 19. A hind-shoe with a crest or toepiece (fig. 178). 20. A hind-shoe with the toe elongated ​and curled upwards, probably for a foot the back tendons of which were contracted, and caused the horse to walk on the point of the toe (fig. 179).
In Germany, the first veterinary treatises published in which shoeing is mentioned are those by Albrecht, des Kaiser Friederich huffschmid;' Hörwart von Hoherbburg; and Seuter. There does not appear to be anything novel on the subject in these works, beyond what we have already epitomized from the Italian writers.
In 1598 appeared the excellent treatise of Carlo Ruini, a Senator of Bologna, on the anatomy and diseases of the horse; in which the maladies and defects of the feet were specially considered, and in a manner truly wonderful, for that time. Indeed, his instructions for the relief or cure of many foot maladies by shoeing are repeated in modern days. From his descriptions, we learn that the cruel and unscientific fashion of opening the heels, as it is termed, and paring the soles until the horn was quite thin, as well as shoeing with high calkins, was producing those effects with which we are so familiar now-a-days. His treatment of contracted heels consisted chiefly in applying lunette, or thin-heeled shoes, to allow the posterior parts of the hoofs to come in contact with the ground; and also to employing shoes with clips at the inner angles of the heels to grasp the inflection of horn, named the 'bars,' so as to press them outwards—a mode of expansion still very common on the ​continent, and for which several patents have been secured during this century.
* fig. 180
CHAPTER X.
For the remainder of this history, we will confine our attention to England and France, alone; countries which have vied with each other in researches into the functions of the horse's foot, and the best mode of protecting it by shoeing.
During the 17th century, there appears to have been an increasing desire to enhance the services of this noble animal, and, thanks to the influence of the Italian hippiatrists, the men who now began to study the horse in health and disease were capable of greatly adding to the small amount of knowledge previously possessed on the
* ↑ Annal. p. 444.
* ↑ This term would appear to be neither of Greek, Latin, nor French origin, but derived from the Anglo-Saxon Glh-lenched, twisted, gradually becoming glenced, clenced, and clenched. The word has been in use from a very remote period in the history of this craft in Britain.
* ↑ Hist. Ferrure, p. 26.
* ↑ 'Ancora è utile al cavallo lavarghi spesso la bocca con umo buono, et fregargliela con il sal pesto: et facédo così, il cavallo bevera più volontieri, et facciasi ferrat con ferri di peso convenevoli, et che sieno rotondi, tanto che s'adatti à l'unghia di piedi. Il ferro deve esser leggieri, et stretto nella sua estremita; imperoche quanto sono piu stretti di dietro, le unghie del cavallo, tanto sono più dure, e forti. Et sappi, che quanto più spesso si ferra il caval giovane, tanto più fa divenir l'unghia debbile e molle, et però per il continuo suo andar ferrato nella giovanezza, le sue unghie diveramo dure, et grandi.’
* ↑ I have not been able to refer to the first Latin edition—' Opus Ruralium Commodorum,' printed in 1471; but of the ten editions afterwards published, I have selected for reference that of nearly a century later—' De Omnibus Agriculturæ partibus, etc, per longo rerum usu exercitatum Optimum et Philosophum Petrum Crescentiensem, principem rei publicae Bononiensis,' etc. Basileæ, 1548.
* ↑ The first and second sentences of this recommendation are from the edition I have mentioned: ' Ferrari debet equus ferris sibi convenientibus rotundis admodum ungulæ lenibus, et ungulis in circuitu strictis, et bene adherentibus, nam levitas ferri reddit equum agilem ad levandum pedes, et ipsius strictura ungulas majores et fortiores facit.'— Lib. ix. cap. 5. Aldrovandus, who may have had access to a more complete edition, quotes this somewhat differently, and adds to the last sentence given above—' Crescentiensis monet ut soleæ sint leves, rotundæ, et strictæ, ita ut ungulis in circuitu bene adhæreant. Nam levitas (inquit) ferri reddit equum agilem ad levandum pedes et strictura ejus ungulas majores et fortiores facit. Cum autem novæ soleæ inducuntur, aut veteris novis clavis firmatæ aliquanti per equum quiescere patiemur, ne post recentem molestiam alia noxei objiciatur.'—Op. cit., p. 50.
* ↑ La Mareschallerie de Laurens Ruse. Paris, 1563. Translated from the Latin edition published at Spire in 1486.
* ↑ Novigent. Opera, Lib. ii, cap. 6.
* ↑ Du Cange. D. Brussel, vol. ii. De Usu Feud., pp. 142, 155.
* ↑ Ibid. Tabul. Carnot. Trabs also adduces Borellus' testimony for the year 1267, as follows: 'Inquesta facta . . . ad sciendum utrum .... spectat ad dom. Regem. Travalla equorum et stalla terræ defixa, quae sustinentur super columnas solo adherentes, quæ cheminis et viis praestant impedimentum, propter hoc tollere. Probata est hæc consuetudo, videlicet quod potest tollere stalla aut scalla et Travalla terræ noviter defixa, præstantia viis impedimentum.’
* ↑ Madox. Hist. Exchequer. Allen. History of London, vol. i.p. 76.
* ↑ Liber Quotidianus Contrarotulatoris Garderobe. London, 1787.
* ↑ A number of the illustrations, with descriptive notes, has been published in the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. vi.
* ↑ Historie of Scotland. Year 1302.
* ↑ The word calkin or calking would appear to be derived from the Latin calyx, the heel, or calcare, to tread.
* ↑ History of Agriculture and Prices in the 13th and 14th Centuries. Vol. ii. p. 328.
* ↑ Archæologia, p. 284. London, 1817.
* ↑ Dictionary of the English Language. London, 1837.
* ↑ History of the Town and Houses of Tutbury.
* ↑ Penny Magazine. No. 166, p. 430.
* ↑ Chronicles, edit. 1812. Vol. i. p. 21.
* ↑ Chronicles of England, France, Spain, and the Adjoining Countries. Edit. I. Johnes. Vol. ii. p. 469. London, 1808.
* ↑ Ibid. Vol. ii. pp. 2, 3, 29.
* ↑ Ibid. p. 29.
* ↑ Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. p. 312.
* ↑ The Rev. S. Lysons, Honorary Canon of Gloucester Cathedral, has most kindly furnished me with the following particulars relative to Gloucester, its iron-trade, and its arms. 'Gloucester was celebrated for its smiths, being so near the mines of the Forest of Dean, which were worked both by the Romans and the Britons; coins of the former and tools of the latter having been found in them. The Via Fabrorum of Roman Gloucester still retains the name of Long Smith Street. The chief employment of the town of Gloucester, before the reign of William the Conqueror, was making and forging of iron; and in the times of King Richard II. and Henry IV. it was famous for its iron manufacture. The ore was brought from Robin Wood's Hill, about two miles from the city, where it is said to have been found in great abundance. This town had anciently its proper signature. On an old seal of the time of King Edward III., which is still used for recognizances, on each side of the effigy is a horse-shoe; one horse-nail near it, and three below it, two and one; with the like number above it placed in the same order. It is said that King Richard III., when he made this a Mayor town, gave it his sword and cap of maintenance. The arms of the town was then "a sword erect, with a cap of maintenance on the point, on each side a horse-shoe, and three nails at length on the base." 'In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the city used a seal which had in the middle a sword in bend, the pommel in base, between six horseshoes and ten horse-nails. Christopher Barber, Garter Principal Kingat-Arms in 1538, granted to the city the following arms: Vert, a pale or, a sword azure besanted the hilt and pommel gules; upon the point a cap of maintenance purple, lined ermine; upon the field two horseshoes argent pierced sable, between six horse-nails in triangle. On a chief party per pale or and purple, a boar's head coupee argent; in his mouth a quince apple gules between two roses. These elaborate arms have disappeared, and horse-shoes and nails are no longer a part of the armorial bearings of the city.'
* ↑ Trans. Socy. Scottish Antiquaries, vol. iii.
* ↑ Guill. Pictav., apud Scrip. Franc. xi. 181.
* ↑ Smith. Naturalist's Library, p. 140.
* ↑ An iron fetter and chain which must, I think, have been used for this purpose, was discovered, with horse-shoes, at Springhead, near Gravesend, and is now in the possession of Mr Sylvester at that place.
* ↑ Cours d'Hippiatrique. Paris, 1798. Megnin. Op. cit. p. 62.
* ↑ Journal of the Archæological Association, vol. i.
* ↑ L. de Sainte-Palaye. Mém. sur l'Ancienne Chevalerie. Paris, 1826.
* ↑ Strutt. Sports and Pastimes, p. 117.
* ↑ Syer Cuming. Op. cit.
* ↑ Miroir des Nobles de la Hesbaye. The Valley of the Meuse, by Dudley Costello.
* ↑ De Bellis Leodunsibus, cap. 41.
* ↑ Skeen. Parliament 1481, cap. 79.
* ↑ C. Innes. Sketches of Early Scotch History, p. 131. Edinburgh, 1862.
* ↑ Acts of the Lords of the Council in Civil Causes, p. 106.
* ↑ C. Innes. Sketches of Early Scotch Domestic History. Edinburgh, 1861.
* ↑ Kennet. History of England, vol. ii. p. 17.
* ↑ Notes and Queries. 2nd Series, vol. ix. p. 394.
* ↑ This procession has been engraved in the Vetusta Monumenta, vol. i.
* ↑ Donizone, Vita Mathilda, lib. i. cap. 10.
* ↑ Muratori. Vol. vi.
* ↑ Lib. iv. cap. 18.
* ↑ Bellis Sacra Historia, p. 311. Basil, 1549.
* ↑ Abbatis Jornalensis. Edit. Twysden, p. 911, 1652.
* ↑ History of Norway from the Earliest Times, by G. L. Baden, p. 172.
* ↑ S. Sturleson. The Heimskringla.
* ↑ Wilson's James I. p. 94.
* ↑ Travels in Peru, p. 138.
* ↑ Chodzko. Popular Poetry of Persia.
* ↑ 'Traité de la Maniere de Bien Emboucher, Manier, et Ferrer les Chevaux; avec les figures de Mors de Bride, Tours et Maniements et Fers qui y sont propres. Dédié au Roi Henri II. Paris, 1564. This is the French translation of the Italian work. There were also published in Italy, in this century, the 'Trattato di Mascalcia' of Fillppo Sacro de Logliacozzo (Venice, 1553); and the 'Gloria del Cavallo' of Caracciolo (1567). In France, shortly after Fiaschi's work appeared, Claudio Corte published 'L'Ecuyer' (Lyons, 1573).
* ↑ It would appear that nail-heads alone were rivetted into the shoes in places to prevent slipping.
* ↑ Das Kleine Rossarzneibüchlein. Benedig, 1542.
* ↑ Von der Höchberümpten, Adeligen und Ritterlichen Kunst der Reyterey. Tegernsee, 1577.
* ↑ Buech von der Rossarzney, etc. Augsburg, 1588.
* ↑ Dell'Anatomia e dell Infirmita dell Cavallo. Bologna, 1598.
* ↑ Megnin. Op. cit. p. 62.