i go THE HUNTING FIELD 



room for further advancement. There is still as 

 much difference between the skilfully town-shod horse, 

 and the lumpy, heavy, graceless, iron-bound hoof 

 emancipated from the hand of the country shoer, as 

 there is between the Bartley turned out boot, and the 

 shapeless, baggy, half-tanned leather looking things 

 of John Crookedlast, of the village of Clottington. 

 There is as much difference in iron as there is in 

 leather. A set of shoes from one man will last half 

 as long again as a set of shoes from another man, 

 just as a pair of boots from one man will outwear two 

 pairs from another. We have seen stuff put on for 

 iron that was almost as soft as gingerbread, driven 

 in by great tenpenny-nail-looking things, whose fat 

 unburied heads looked as if they were meant to act 

 the part of one of CrosskilPs clod-crushers; regular 

 tear-up-the-land and soil-looking things. 



It is not our intention to discuss the merits of the 

 different forms of shoes, but there is one point con- 

 nected with hunting shoes that merits a word or two, 

 and that is "calkins," or turnings up of the heels, to 

 prevent slipping. These are very useful in downy, 

 hilly countries, and if the calkins could be added on 

 arriving at that sort of country, they would be very 

 good, especially in frosty weather, where, as all Sussex 

 sportsmen know, one side of a hill is often soft and 

 the other side hard, according as they lie to the sun. 

 Some turn up the outer heel only, and on soft greasy 

 surfaces, perhaps, the outer heel is sufficient, but as 

 that causes uneven treading, it must be prejudicial 

 to the foot on roads and hard surfaces. If calkins, 

 therefore, are used, they should be used to both sides 

 of the heel, or the foot either raised up or pared 

 down, so as to preserve an equality. 



There is another very important point connected 

 with shoeing, particularly hunter shoeing, that even 

 our friend Lord Brougham and the whole "Useful 

 Knowledge Society" seem to have overlooked, and 



