28 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



made of raw hide or coarse cloth (as Ludolphus tells us 

 the Tartars used cow-hide for their horses' feet), passing 

 round the feet and up the legs, like a laced boot. They 

 will be noticed hereafter as solea. 



Polydore Vergil (a.d, 1550), in his ' De Inventoribus 

 Rerum,' informs us that the Thessalians were reported to 

 have been the first who protected their horses' hoofs with 

 shoes of iron. ' Hos quoque (Peletronios, qui Thessaliae 

 populi sunt) primos equorum ungulas munire ferreis soleis 

 ccepisse ferunt.' ' This author, whose Latin was generally 

 more elegant than his descriptions were faithful, does not 

 give his authorities for this statement, which is unsup- 

 ported by any proof of its correctness. In all likelihood, 

 as Mr Pegge observes/ he has misled himself by referring 

 to Virgil, where that poet asserts that 



'The Pelian Lapithae 

 Invented bits, and mounted on the back j 

 Broke horses to the ring, and made them spring 

 Under the arm'd, and proudly pace the round.' ^ 



Vergil made a mistake, or allowed himself to be deceived, 

 when he described these primitive people of North Greece 

 as the inventors of horse-shoes. 



If we turn from the Greek writers who lived previous 

 to our era, to the wonderful productions of the Greek 

 sculptors, those divine works of art — those graceful chisel- 

 lings portraying groups of men and horses, which are 



' Lib. ii. cap. 12. ^ Archaeologia, 1776. 



^ GrtJorgics, iii. 115 : 



* Frena Pelethronii Lapithae gyrosque dedere 

 Impositi dorso, atque equitem docuere sub armis 

 Insultare solo, et gressus glomerare superbos.' 



