ART OF SHOEING. 553 



work, which is so different to that pursued by every other- 

 people, that whilst ideas may have had other origin, and even 

 shoes may have been brought over, it does not seem that the 

 English shoer learned this mode of working from any conti- 

 nental or Oriental workman. In the first place, in no other 

 country do the shoers hold the horse's foot and work at it at 

 the same time; and though this seems a simple matter, it is 

 characteristic of the national mode, and to change from one 

 plan of work to the other, is found to be an ordeal equivalent 

 to serving a second apprenticeship. An Englishman cannot 

 do his work by another man holding the horse's foot ; nor can 

 the workmen in neighbouring countries hold the foot, and 

 prepare it, or nail on the shoe, and finish the work, without 

 the foot being held. Another part of the process truly 

 British is that of fullering the shoe, and this was no doubt 

 at first done for the purpose of marking out by a groove 

 where the nail-holes were to be stamped; hence the 

 creased, or, as we now call it, the fullered shoe of these isles. 

 Nails were also made with the heads to conform to the 

 crease in the shoe ; that gave us the old rose-headed nail, 

 which has never been but partially superseded, and will, we 

 predict, hold its place in future time as the best English nail 

 This difference between the Oriental and continental stamp- 

 ing, and the English method of creasing the shoe, led to a 

 thorough divergence of practice. Workmen are clever men ; 

 they feel their way as they go, and by creasing the shoe, it 

 would soon be found that the iron must be worked so that a 

 thick outside margin was left as we say, a thick outer 

 edge or else the fullering would burst, and there would be 

 insufficient depth for the head of the nail of its peculiar form. 

 This difference from that of the stamping adopted of 

 old, brought about another divergence; for, as with the 

 English stamped shoe, the outer margin must be thick, the 



