96 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



discovering any incontrovertible evidence as to those who 

 employed it having extended its usefulness by a durable 

 armature to its vulnerable hoofs. All the authorities 

 worthy of acceptance have been examined, and their testi- 

 mony, taken as a whole, would lead to the belief that plates 

 of iron or other metal, securely attached to the feet by nails, 

 were not in use during the period of time over which our 

 inquiry has extended ; these authorities have been histori- 

 ans, agricultural and veterinary writers, and sculptors, who 

 would, we may be almost certain, have left us ample 

 testimony in this respect, had they been cognizant of the 

 art. But vv^e appear to have evidence that a very tem- 

 porary and clumsy defence was resorted to, and which 

 was more or less firmly fixed to the extremity by thongs 

 and bands, or straps and buckles. 



Unfortunately, further inquiry is rendered all but 

 nugatory on account of the dearth of historical or other 

 records by which one might be enabled to pursue an un- 

 interrupted investigation towards the period when iron 

 shoes were attached by iron nails to the feet of horses, and 

 that such an artisan as the faher ferrarius was needed to 

 garnish the hoofs with these now indispensable append- 

 ages. The third century saw the Roman Empire rapidly 

 declining ; successive hordes of barbarians issuing from 

 what are designated '■ the frozen loins of the north,' be- 

 gan to disturb the equilibrium of the western world, and 

 to spread confusion and destruction everywhere. The 

 Huns, originally of Tatar or Scythian origin, first made 

 their presence felt in Europe about the middle of the 4th 

 century, and about a hundred years later ravaged the 

 continent far and near, under the leadership of their king, 



