254 



HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



this period. One of them (fig. 91) is the most perfect 



specimen I ever saw, 

 and is so little affected 

 by its long sojourn un- 

 derground, that but for 

 the fact of its having 

 been found with fibulae, 

 a lamp {lucerna), and 

 other characteristic 

 memorials of the Ro- 

 man aera, together with 

 its peculiar form, one 

 would be perfectly 

 justified in asserting 

 it had quite recently 

 ^' ^' come from the anvil 



of the blacksmith. It has never been worn, a circumstance 

 to which its high preservation is partly due ; the edges 

 are perfectly clean and sharp, and every stage in its 

 manufacture can be readily traced, as there is not the 

 smallest speck of rust upon it. The iron of which it is 

 composed is of the very purest description, and so white 

 and ductile, that it was at first conjectured to be silver. 

 This, however, has been ascertained to be owing to 

 the presence of a somewhat large proportion of 

 nickel,' which has most largely contributed to the ex- 

 emption from oxidation. I am informed that iron of 

 this character, with much nickel in it, is found on the 

 surface of the ground in Wilts. The outside of the shoe 



' An analytical chemist who examined it, informed me that it was 

 the rarer metal titanium. 



