528 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS, TOOLS, ETC. 



smith. But shoes were always bought ready made, and in 

 considerable quantities. They must indeed have been very 

 slight, and little more than tips ; the necessity for strong shoes, 

 in the absence of hard or well-metalled roads, not being so 

 urgent as it is now. It is possible, also, that the hoofs of 

 horses have in our times become less solid in consequence 

 of the continual paring and protection which the modern 

 system of shoeing involves. If we compare the price of iron 

 by the hundred with the cost of shoes, and remember also 

 that the charge of working iron was generally almost equal 

 to that of the material, we shall find that the medieval horse- 

 shoe could not have possibly weighed more than half, and pro- 

 bably very often not more than the third of a pound. 



Traces are to be found of heavier shoes. Thus several of 

 the entries from 1265 to 1276, (unless we conclude that 

 wrought iron was always dearer in the eastern counties, owing 

 to the general enhancement of wages in a region then so 

 favoured by manufacturing activity,) seem to indicate stouter 

 and heavier shoes than are ordinarily found. So marked is 

 this difference on some occasions, that I have been obliged 

 to omit certain entries at very high prices from my calculation 

 of the annual average, lest I should give a false impression 

 as to the value of this ordinary manufacture in certain years. 

 Thus, while certain shoes are returned from Ospring in 1286, 

 1287, and 1388, at y. \d. the hundred, a rate which is very 

 frequent in the thirteenth century, others are quoted at 5/., 

 5*. 6*/., and 8.r. 6</., and are specially designated as c great ' 

 shoes. Similarly, the entries for the last year in which evi- 

 dence is afforded are shoes supplied for the saddle-horses of 

 Merton College, and the price, it must be admitted, is very 

 high. The Hornchurch return for the year 1396 is also exces- 

 sive, but the purchase is made for the farm stud, and represents 

 probably only that dearness which is found, even in those early 

 times, in the vicinity of London. 



On the occasions when the kinds of shoes are distinguished, 

 a difference is generally made between the price of cart-horse 



