or stocks--exact counterparts of those employed by country farriers in Britain and the Continent half a century ago-where it is firmly bound and wedged in by ropes and bars, and a twitch-an instrument of punishment still tolerated in other lands-twisted to agony round the under-lip of the subdued beast, until its extremities have been iron-clad. The more docile and submissive animal is less harshly dealt with, for it is allowed to stand untied, with one of its feet flexed on a low three-legged stool, while the workman shaves off great slices of superfluous horn from the thick soles, with an instrument which

differs in no particular that we can see from the now obsolete "buttress" of England, or the present boutoir of France (fig. 78). Perhaps a fidgety draught animal does

PEKING AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD.

231

not quite relish the idea of parting from its worn-out shoes ; and the squeamish shoer, to avoid sundry uncomfortable contusions on his shins, stands some distance off, and hammers at the end of a long thin-pointed poker, inserted between the useless plate of iron and the hoof, to twist it off. Whether aware of it or not, like the French, the Chinese seem to prefer the foot in process of shoeing being held up by an assistant, instead of courageously grasping it as our farriers do. The Tartar ponies being light-paced and small, and the roads not very stony, the shoe is light, thin, narrow, and quite ductile. It is, in fact, nothing more than a slight rim of tough iron, pierced by four nail-holes, with a separate groove for the reception of each nail-head; and the heels are drawn so thin, that when the shoe is nailed on the foot they are bent inwards to catch each angle of the inflection of the hoof, and in this way support the nails (fig. 79). Altogether, it is far more like one of our own horse

shoes than those of the Afghans, the Arabian or Barbary, or the Persian and Turkish curiosities, and certainly very far superior to the straw sandal everywhere used in Japan to protect

fig. 79

the horses' feet. There is little care and a great deal of dexterity exhibited in nailing on one of these iron plates. The excellent strong feet of the ponies afford every facility for a rough-and-ready job. The overgrown horn is shaved away to a level surface; a single blow makes the shoe narrower or wider without heating: it is applied to the solid crust, and one by one the unbending nails are sent through the whole thickness of the insensitive part of the

hoof with a few sharp taps, the tips of the nails being only simply twisted and hammered close to the face of the hoof; and the Wayland smith has earned his groat. At odd intervals one comes upon a group of these tinkers arming the hot, painful, road-worn toes of prostrate struggling bullocks with a nearly semicircular plate of metal on the outer margin of the hoof; and so smartly, that the bellowing creatures have hardly been thrown on the ground and secured than they are up again, proof against the hard, sun-baked roads.' ' I

Perhaps we are not making a very wide ethnological jump, if we pass from this part of the Old World to the Rocky Mountains of the New Continent, and note the customs among the equestrian, though not horse-loving, tribes of Indians in that wild region. The horse has had but little influence in civilizing the many clans who have become horsemen since that animal was introduced by the early Spaniards, and they have done as little in attempting to prevent its degeneracy in their hands. Iron shoes are never worn on the hoofs, but when travelling over rock ground, and the unfortunate animals become footsore, a substitute for the metal is found in what is termed 'parflêche.' This is the untanned, sundried hide of the buffalo or elk, in which the pounded flesh or 'pemmican' made from these beasts is wrapped up and preserved, and on which these people largely subsist. The thick, hairy skin, I am informed, makes an excellent temporary covering for the foot, forming, when tied round the pastern, a convenient hoof-buskin, like that made from camel's hide in the Soudan.

I

See my 'Travels on Horseback in Mantchu Tartary,' p. 399.

CHAPTER VI.

EQUESTRIANS.

BRITAIN, ITS EARLY POPULATION. THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. CÆSAR'S INVASION. GREAT NUMBERS OF HORSES. WORKING IN IRON. CHARIOTS. RARITY OF ANCIENT HORSE-SHOES. BRITISH BARROWS. SILBURY HILL AND ITS ANTIQUITIES. THE GREAT KING. OLD HORSE-shoes. CLARK'S SPECIMENS. BECKHAMPTON RELICS. SPRINGHEAD AND ITS REMAINS. YORK SPECIMENS. COLNEY, LONDON, AND GLOUCESTER. EXCELLENT ILLUSTRATIONS. COTSWOLD HILLS. ROMAN VILLA AT CHEDWORTH. CIRENCESTER. PEVENSEY CASTLE. HOD HILL AND ITS STORY. SPURS. HOOF-PICK. URICONIUM AND CONDERUM. LIVERPOOL EXAMPLES. REPULSE OF THE BRITONS. LAWS OF HOWEL THE

GOOD. DIVISION OF WALES. TRINAL SYSTEM. WELSH KING'S COURT. THE JUDGE OF THE COURT AND GROOM OF THE REIN. DUTIES, PRIVILEGES, AND PROTECTION OF THE SMITH. THE THREE ARTS. VALUE OF THE HORSE'S FOOT. LIST AND VALUATION OF SMITHS' TOOLS. TRIADS. SONS OF THE BOND. THE SMITH'S SEAT AT COURT. SIR WALTER SCOTT AND THE NORMAN HORSE-SHOE.' KING ARTHUR'S STONE. TRADITIONS OF HOOF

SCYTHE-STONE

THE

PITS OF DEVONSHIRE.

PRINTS. RENAUD AND THE BLACK ROCKS OF ARDENNES.
CHEVALIER MASON.
STRANGE IMPRINT. THE SEAT OF A ZOOPHYTE. THE ANGLO-
SAXONS. THEIR HORSE-SHOES. EQUESTRIAN HABITS.

MONKS

AND MARES. SPORTING PRIESTS. ANGLO-SAXON LAWS. VALUE OF HORSES. SAXON CAVALRY. HAROLD AND THE DANES AND NORMANS. SAXON WEAPONS. GRAVES. FAIRFORD, CAENBY, BRIGHTON DOWNS, GILLINGHAM, BERKSHIRE. BATTLE FLATS. ANGLO-SAXON ILLUMINATIONS. MATTHEW OF PARIS. SHOEING FRONT Feet. FROST. SHOEING IN SCOTLAND. NORMAN INVASION. A NOBLE SAXON FARRIER. BAYEUX TAPESTRY. SHOEING

ARMORIAL BEARINGS. SIMON ST LIZ.
DEATH OF

WITH THE NORMANS.

EARL FERRERS AND OKEHAM.
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

CURIOUS CUSTOM.

BRITAIN probably received its earliest population from Gallia Celtica some centuries before the Christian era, and these Belgia or Cimbri were what we now term the ancient Britons. The island, however, was in all probability populated before the arrival of these wanderers, though we know little of its history until the advent of the Romans. At Cæsar's invasion it was well populated, and the interior was inhabited by people who believed themselves to be autochthones. The southern and eastern coasts were more particularly occupied by the emigrants from Belgic Gaul, who had crossed the channel and the northern sea, attracted by the prospect of plunder. After having obtained a footing they became agriculturists. They possessed the same manners as the Gauls, though their social condition was less advanced; the Celts in Gaul having attained a comparatively high degree of civilization. They were also more fierce than their kindred on the other side of the channel, and were altogether, perhaps, in a more degraded condition than those tribes we have been considering. Their religion was the same as that of the Gauls, and Tacitus tells us that they had the same worship and the same superstitions. Druidism found a congenial home in Britain when banished from the continent, though it had existed in this country, in all likelihood, from the landing of the nomads; and with its mysterious and dismal rites, it no doubt claimed the same ! Agricola, ii.