ART OF SHOEING. 567 



able, and most adapted to European soil and artificial roads, 

 yet the mode of stamping the shoe, and the leaving the web 

 as thick inside as out, is traceable from the older type of 

 shoe of eastern origin above noticed. 



The English shoe, as far as we can trace its character, has 



Fig. 234. Near Fore, Fig. 235. Near Hind. 



been distinct in its leading features from any others the his- 

 tory of which we know anything about. Our ancestors seem 

 to have been cautious, and before forming the nail holes, 

 they made a groove around the outer circumference of the 

 iron, to mark the line where the nails were to be placed, at 

 given distances apart, in the groove. 



It was, no doubt, from the first attempts and by degrees 

 on the part of the English, that the creasing became part oi 

 the art of making the shoe; the reason which gave rise to 

 the crease or fullering seems to have been so far lost sight 

 of, that the workman in after-time was esteemed most able, 

 who could make the fullering with the cleanest edge and 

 best form. Fine fullering was in vogue at the end of last 

 century and early part of the present, which led to slanting 

 the stamp and nail inwards, taking slender hold of the 

 hoof, and in order to retain the shoe securely on the foot, 

 the nails were driven high up the wall; that mode was both 



