OLD HORSE-SHOES. 



243 



fig. 80 



The person who presented them to Mr Clark, says of the 



first shoe (fig. 80) that it was found upon the down on 



the opposite side of the road, 



at the distance of nearly half-a- 



mile from the place where the 



other shoe was found, under a 



heap of flints. These flints, it is 



probable, were taken at some 



former period from the above 



spot, and were deposited upon 



the down, probably for mending 



the roads ; for, from the perfect accordance and similarity 



of both these shoes, in their peculiar make and fashion, says 



Bracy Clark, and from other circumstances, there can be no 



reasonable doubt of their having been constructed at the 



same period, and in all probability belonged to the same 



animal, the one being a hind, and the other a fore shoe, 



and of nearly the same size. They had also perfectly 



similar nails. Being looked upon by the labourers who 



removed the flints as mere old iron, they were passed 



unnoticed by them, as they sometimes found in these 



localities Roman and other coins 



of some value. 



Of the second shoe (fig. 81), 

 he says it was found ' by the 

 levelling of a bank, in Silbury 

 Hill mead, for the purpose of 

 watering it. The soil removed 

 on this occasion was principally 

 chalk, to the depth of a foot or 



16 * 



fig. 81 



