was not really a gold shoe, however, but a gilt one, that had done duty on the hoof of Lord Willoughby d'Eresby's favourite horse Clinker.' Deceived by its appearance, or misled by its popular designation, some rogue stole Clinker's shoe. This happened in 1846, and for twelve years the pride of Oakham Hall was conspicuous by its absence; but in 1858, the bailiff of the town was astonished by receiving the long-missing golden shoe per rail, accompanied by some humorous verses; but the thief was never discovered.' The most recent instance of the horse-shoe impost having been levied, is reported in the daily papers for January, 1869: 'SHOEING A PEER.-A short time since, Lady Louisa Finch, Lord Redesdale, Mr Campbell (who were on a visit to George Finch, Esq., Burley-on-the-Hill), and G. H. Finch, Esq., M.P. for Rutland, paid a visit to Oakham Castle to inspect the Old Norman Hall (the oldest in England except Westminster Hall) and its horse-shoes. This getting to the ears of the bailiff, he was quickly down upon his Lordship for the honour of a shoe. Lord Redesdale selected one similar to those which of late have been fixed on the walls, and the new shoe will shortly be added to the large number now in the castle. The old manorial custom, from which this arises, took place at the first erection of the castle, on the grant to Walchelme de Ferrars, whose ancestors bore arms semé of horse-shoes, as designative of his office of Master of the Horse to the Duke of Normandy. In the early Norman period of our history, grants of customs seem Chambers's Journal. to have been on this principle, that the Lords de Ferrars were entitled to demand from every baron, on his first passing through this lordship, a shoe from one of the horses, to be nailed upon the castle gate, the bailiff of the manor being empowered to stop the horses (and carriages also of late years) until service was performed. The custom is still preserved in Lord Redesdale giving a shoe on the 24th September, 1868.' Soon after the Norman Conquest, we also find that 'Henry de Averyng held the manor of Morton, in the county of Essex, in capite of our Lord the King, by the serjeantry of finding a man with a horse, value ten shillings, and four horse-shoes (quatuor ferris equorum), one sack of barley, and one iron buckle, as often as it may happen that our Lord the King should go with his army into Wales, at his own proper expense for forty days.' These acts will testify to the high value put upon shoeing by the early Norman kings. It is rather amusing to read Bracy Clark's history of the introduction of shoeing into Britain by the Normans, and how the evil they had carried with them--for Bracy Clark's sole idea seemed to be that shoeing was an unmitigated evil — recoiled upon themselves, and caused the death of King William. He points the moral by stating, that the conqueror lost his life through his horse falling with him in jumping a ditch where the ground was slippery, for if the animal had not been shod he would not have fallen. Thus,' he says, 'the monarch who was the first to introduce the art of shoeing into England, was one of the first and most celebrated victims.' And M. Nicard ' Blount's Tenures, p. 16. DEATH OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 297 believes this statement, and explains how the accident occurred. The death of the king may have been caused by his horse falling with him, though that is a rather doubtful matter, as one account has it that he died from the effects of a wound sustained in France; at any rate, it is certain that he was not the first, by perhaps at least ten centuries, to introduce the art of shoeing into Britain. www 298 CHAPTER VII. DISCOVERY OF SO-CALLED HIPPOSANDALS.' OPINIONS. DIVERSE VARIOUS MODELS. PREVALENCE ON THE CONTINENT AND IN ENGLAND: THEIR CHARACTERISTICS. THREE TYPES. DIFFERENT HYPOTHESES. DISCOVERIES AT DALHEIM. PATHOLOGICAL SHOES. ERRONEOUS CONCLUSIONS. HILL OF SACRIFICES. M. BIELER. CHATEAU BEAUREGARD, VIEIL-EVREUX, AND REMEN COURT. DEFAYS. HIPPOSANDALS ON HOOFS. MULE AND OX SANDALS. THIRD TYPE. ENGLISH SPECIMENS. STUTTGART. ARE THEY M. SUPPOSITION. FOOT DEFENCES? ARGUMENTS ADVERSE TO THIS ANCIENT REFER IN connection with the archæological discoveries which have enabled us to fix, approximately, the period when shoeing was first introduced into, or practised in, Europe, I have deferred alluding, until now, to another matter which has excited much interest among antiquarians; this is the discovery of what are generally termed 'hipposandals-objects in iron, of somewhat different shapes, but all apparently designed for the same purpose. various museums in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Britain, these curious-looking instruments are exhibited under the designation of hipposandals,' or 'soleæ ferreæ, owing to its being supposed,-because the Romans did not employ nailed-shoes, and these articles usually pre In DIVERSE OPINIONS. 8 299 they were senting themselves with Roman remains, used as sandals for their horses' feet. A large number of archaeologists,-at the head of whom are the Abbé Cochet, M. Namur, and Mr Roach Smith;3 and several Continental veterinary surgeons, with others, Professors Reynal of Alfort, and Defays of Brussels,5 MM. Fischer of Cessingen, and Bieler of Rolle (Switzerland)—are of this opinion; while others again, as Professor Quicherat of Chartes, MM. Castan and Delacroix of Besançon, Captain Bial of the French Artillery, and M. Quiquerez of Switzerland, are opposed to them, and think that these articles could never have been intended for, or worn as, shoes or sandals. Mr Roach Smith, the eminent archæologist, appears at one time to have held a middle opinion on the subject: 'It has been supposed they were used as temporary shoes for horses with tender feet, and they have been called stirrups; but both these notions are unsatisfactory.'" Some of these so-called sandals have been found in Gallo-Roman and Frankish graves; many with Roman remains of various kinds, and others without any accompanying relics. Though their forms are varied, yet it will be found P. 92. 6 Le Tombeau de Childéric I. Public. de la Soc. Archéol. du Luxemburg, vols. vii. p. 185; xi. 3 Collect. Antiq., vol. iii. p. 129. Journal Vét. de Belgique, 1853. 5 Annales de Méd. Vétérinaire, 1867. Journal Vét. de Belgique, 1853. 7 Journal de Méd. Vétérinaire de Lyon, 1857. Journal de Méd. Vét. Militaire, 1866. • Megnin. Origine de la Ferrure. Catalogue of the Museum of London Antiquities, p. 77. |