The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1869-02-20

bearing Il shield on which were en-.
! gravcd horseshoe, pinccrs, and ham,
mcr, surmounted by Il tlcur-de-lis crown
which he granted to be thcnceforward
worn by his said mastcr-smith, Thomas
! Edyan, and his successors, the senior
| alderman of the Smiths Company, for,
| ever. y gravcstone, excavated at the
western end of st. Johns Church,
| Chester, contained a heur-de-lis cross,
on either side of which were sculptured
Il horseshoe and smiths hammer and
| pincers, -clcarly commemorative of a
dcfunct member of the Smiths Compa-
ny at Chester, and possibly of that
very Edvan whose Workmanship had
so won the princes favor.
In Lord Hcrbcrt's Lifn or Henry
VIII, printed in Kennel History f
England iii. ~, we read that Henry
having feastcd the ladies royalty for
divers days, did depart from Tournay
to Lisle October Is, 1879, whittier he
was invited by the Lady Margaret;
who caused there a joust to he held in
an extraordinary manner; the place
being large room, raised high from
the ground by many steps, and paved
| with black square stones like marble
while the horses, to prevent slipping,
were shod with felt or Hocks the Latin
words are feltro sivc tomento), after
which the ladies danced all night"
Shooting with felt is mentioned by
Shakespeare (King Lear.
Aubrey, in his Misccllanies, SAYS
Under the porch of Staninfeld Church,
in Suffolk, ! saw tile with horse
shoe upon it, placed there to hinder
the power of witches, though one
would imagine that the holy water
would have been sufficient" The
charm of the horseshoe lies in its being
forkcd, and presenting two points.
Thus, Herrick in his Hesperides, says
''Hang up hooks and sheers, to scare
Hence the bag that rises the mare,
Till they be all over wit
With the mire and with the sweat,
This observed, the names shall be
! OF your horses all knot-free."
Even the two forefngcrs held out
apart, are thought to avert evil eye, or
prevent the Vaccinations of the lord
and master of the neither world
The pentacic, or seal of Solomon. is
supposed to possess great power, as
being composed of two tri-angles pre-
senting six forkcd ends, and therefore
called pcntaclc enormously
Mr.. limbs states, that when Mon
mout Street was a fashionable locality
of London, it was noted for its number
OF horscshocs nailed over the door-wavs
or on the sill In 1913, Sir Henry Ell
lis counted here seventeen; in 1S4l,
there were six: but 1852, there were
eleven; now there are fewer. Nelson
had great faith in the horseshoe, and
one was nailed to the mast of the ship
Victory. Lucky DIR. James, attribu-
ted the success of his fcverpowdcr to
his finding a horseshoe, which he adopt
ed as the crest upon his carriage. A
horseshoe is very conspicuous at the
gate of Meux,s Brewery at the corner
of Tottcnham Court Road, and on the
| trappings of the horses at the establish
mcnt The lucky belief in the horse
shoe may have led to its having been
adopted as the ornamental portion of a
scarfpin.
Messrs. Larwood and Hotten, in
their History Of Signboards, state that
the horseshoe by itself is comparatively
rare sign. The three horseshoes,
however, are not uncommon; and the
single shoe may be met with in many
combinations, arising from the old be-
lief in its lucky influences. The sun
and horseshoe is still public-house
sign in Great Titchfeld Street: and
the magpie and horseshoe may be seen
carved in wood in Fcttcr Lane,
magpie perrhed within the horseshoe,
and a bunch of grapes being suspended
from it.