EARLY TRACES OF GROOTED SHOES. 201 



with heel and toe calks of unusual shape, others are plane, 

 but, at the same time, as a rule, they are of exceedingly 

 coarse workmanship : a fact which may still be perceived 



despite the ravages made by rust Universal as the 



practice of shoeing is at the present day, there are yet 

 places, such as North Germany, Hungary, and others, 

 where it is not always necessary, and where horses are 

 seldom shod, except on the fore-feet, or only in winter ; 

 others, on the contrary, as the horses of the rich, being 

 shod merely as a kind of luxury on all four feet.' 



The ^ajusted' or curved antique shoes are peculiar to 

 Germany, it would appear. They have not been found in 

 France, so far as I am aware; neither, as we will see hereafter, 

 have they been met with in this country. It will be remem- 

 bered that two specimens were found in Belgium. They 

 seem to be generally grooved, and have peculiar calkins. 

 Grosz's last illustration gives us the primitive undulating- 

 bordered shoe. 



We have seen from M. Quiquerez's report, that the 

 earliest traces of grooved or 'fullered' shoes are found 

 with remains of the Burgundi, and constitute a new and 

 characteristic form. This ancient people — one of the 

 principal branches of the Vandals, originally inhabiting 

 the country between the Oder and Vistula — have left 

 numerous traces of their passage through, and sojourn in, 

 various regions of Switzerland and Gaul in the 4th and 

 subsequent centuries. They established themselves to 

 the west of the Jura, about the same time that the Goths 

 entered Aquitaine,' and appear to have been, from the 

 remotest times, distinguished from the other German 



' Aug. Thierry. Lettres sur I'Hist. de France, vi. 



