1 48 



HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



can belong to no other than the Roman, if not an earlier, 

 period.'' 



In the Liverpool Museum, two shoes belonging to 

 the Rolfe collection, and said to have been found by M. 

 Boucher de Perthes on the battle-field of Crecy, near 

 Abbeville, in 1851, are of the Gaulish or Roman period 

 in shape. I can scarcely believe that they belong to the 

 age in which the famous battle was fought. All my 

 researches lead me to think that this form of shoe was out 

 of use even long before the tenth century. It must not be 

 forgotten, that the district in which the famous battle was 

 fought, has been the scene of conflicts from the earliest 

 times. 



The sub-curator of this museum remarks in his notes 

 to me on these specimens, that they ' are remarkable from 

 the nails used to secure them being oblong throughout 

 the shank, and with oblong and narrow flat heads, as is 

 evidenced by the socketed holes.' The size of the first 

 (fig. 25 ) is 4^ inches long by 4 inches wide ; and the second 

 is the same length, but only 3A inches wide (fig. 26). 



fig. 25 fig- z6 



' Constitutionnel, May 31, 1865. 



