The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-09-22
History Of HOrsesllOeing.

VI. QUAD.
History Of HOrseshoeing.
The very recent strike of horse
shoers in London, which was happily
of short duration, may serve to call to
memory some facts and traditions that
60 to prove the high antiquity of the
craft, says the Pail Mall Gazette, and
it's immense influence on the progress
of civilization, as far as the services
of the horse are concerned in advan-
cling the interests of mankind. Though
the horseshoer is very often, if not
generally, designated, ''farrier," yet
this term is misleading nowadays, if
it ever was correct in indicating his
special function. The faber ferrarius,
from which the term 'farrier' is
doubtless derived, was a worker in
iron Of any kind or fashion, and,
though in the earliest periods of his
history he shod horses and forged
various weapons and other. articles,
yet the designation Of "smith'' was
usually applied to him in this country,
and when he began to be called a
farrier his vocation was morn than of
a sheer of horses, and later their
physician and surgeon in addition.
The antiquity of the horseshoer is,
states Mr.. George Fleming, writing in
the Live Stock Journal, coeval with
the origin of the art, which is lost in
the mist of 1000 years. In Western
Europe it was probably known to the
Celtic tribes at a very remote time,
and it may be that the Druid priests
were the teachers Of horseshoeiDg in
those days, as they were the men who
were best acquainted with the print
tive arts and sciences, a knowledge of
which they contrived to surround with
a veil Of mystery that chung to these
for centuries. The horseshoer was,
in the early centuries of our era, evil
IDENTIFY considered a mysterious kind
Of workman who pursued his calling
in a weird-like manner in a place where
no one was allowed to enter until the
steed was shod.
1t is certain that for hundreds Of
years the sheer was an important per-
sonage, as he held a high social posi-
tion and enjoyed certain special privi-
leges in this country long before the
Norman invasion. This is shown in
the Welsh triad of laws, which were
revised by Howell the Good in A. D.
Oil, but which were doubtless in force
long before that date. In these laws
and regulations the Court smith, while
in the palace. was allotted a seat at
the end of the bench, near the priest
of the household, and he vas protected
from the time he began work in the
morning until he finished at night.
He was to be presented with clothes
for what he did for the officers of the
palace; he was entitled to the first
liquor that came into the hall, and he
was to have food for himself and
servant from the palace, as we'll as the
heads and feet of all cattle slaughtered
there, and other privileges.
In the Gwenthian code Of these laws
it is stated that the smith was to sit
in a chair near the Judge beside a
column, and this column was to be
struck by the sileptiary on the side
farthest from the King when COM
manding silence. Among the Anglo
Saxons the sheer was also held in high
esteem, and would appear to have
received certain possessions in land
through his craft. Such was the case
with Gamelhere, Of Welbect Noting
hamshire, at the Norman invasion, as
he held certain lands on condition
that he shod the Kings horses when
ever the latter visited the Manor Of
Mansfield. To Simon St. Lix, a Nor
man n%obleman, who accompanied him
in his invasion, William the Conqueror
gave the town of Northampton and
the whole hundred of Falkley, to pro-
vide shoes for his horses, while an
other follower, Henry de Ferries, or
Farrarlis, had bestowed on him the
honor of Tutbury, in the county Of
Stafford, because he was intrusted
with the shoeing of the Kings horses,
or perhaps the control of the shoers.
In 1885, during the reign Of Henry
III, Walter lie Brun, or Bruin, a
sheer, or marechal, as he was then
designated in Anglo-Saxon, had a piece
of land granted him in the strand.
parish of St. Clements Danes, wherein
to erect a forge, on condition that he
would render at the exchequer annual
ly for the same a quitrent Of six horse
shoes with sixty-two nails belonging
thereto.-a payment, strange to say,
which il still continued every year at
the swearing in Of the sheriff of Lon
don and Middlesex to the representa-
tives Of the sovereign, though the
said piece Of ground has long been
city property. At this time, too, the
price of horsoshoes and nails, as we'll
as shoeing, was regulated by laws, and
these are still in evidence.