2 ON SHOEING. 



streets arc paved with stone, all the skill of the 

 shoeing-smith is necessary. In Nottingham, for 

 instance, where the streets are frequently hilly, 

 and also paved with stone, the horses' feet are 

 severely tried. In one shop I have known from 

 eight to ten men to be constantly employed in 

 shoeing or making shoes, all or most of whom 

 were clever at their business ; yet all of these had 

 different methods both of making and of putting 

 on shoes. Of this circumstance the men were well 

 apprized ; and, as most of them were accustomed 

 to make shoes every night and morning, although 

 these were promiscuously thrown together, every 

 man knew his own work. If, for instance, any 

 one of them had shod a horse whose feet it was 

 difficult to fit, and he in the course of eight or ten 

 days had been obliged to be returned for alteration, 

 these men, after examining the form of the foot 

 and the shoe, could, in general, tell the person who 

 had done the work. As all these men had difter- 

 ent ways of working, they were thereby enabled 

 to shoe some kinds of feet far better than others. 

 Thus much I have endeavoured to show the im- 

 propriety of attempting to lay before the public a 

 system that can never wholly be acted upon. A 

 number of patent shoes, from different parts of the 

 kingdom, have been received at the shop of the 

 late Mr. Frost, at Nottingham, which have been 



