Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/214

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186
HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING.

the time when the last owner of that place fought for Charles le Téméraire against the Swiss and their allies. The size of the shoes of these various epochs is not the only thing to consider in the determination of the species, for the dimensions must necessarily have varied a little. Nevertheless, it is very remarkable that those of the first period scarcely vary, and they might be confounded with the shoes of mules and asses found sometimes with the more noble steed. Certain small light shoes, bearing the characteristics just described for each epoch, may have belonged to some palfrey or hackney ridden by a young Gaul or Gallo-Roman, as well as to the steed of the fiery Châtelaine of the middle ages.

'This notice of the horse-shoes which have been worn in the Jura in ancient times is far from being complete; and it has no other merit than furnishing specimens of ascertained origin, and offering as closely as possible types rather than exceptions, for we have been careful to choose those for our drawings which represent the most characteristic and usual forms.'

In Belgium, shoes of this ancient type have also been discovered. In making a road at Jodoigne, in a cutting at a certain depth from the surface, some Roman pottery and four of these plates were discovered in a bronze vase. They were described by M. Schayes, who remarks: 'The horse-shoes were, like the pottery, in perfect preservation. I believe them to be of Roman origin. They are less regular in form than our modern shoes, and are no more than from 4 to 41/4 inches long, and 33/4 and 4 inches wide. The vessel containing these was supposed to be no older than the 15th century, and it was surmised