REPULSE OF THE BRITONS. 265 



shoe four inches long and the same in width, which 

 evidently belongs to the era of undulating borders, small 

 calkins, and nail-holes with deep sockets (fig.- 102). Un- 

 fortunately there is no his- 

 tory attached to it. 



This is all the evidence, 

 so far as I can discover, 

 which we may bring for- 

 ward in favour of shoeing 

 being in vogue in Celtic, or 

 pre-Roman, and Roman 

 times in this country. The 

 wide extent over which the ^^ '°^ 



remains of hoof-armature has been traced, the relics, in the 

 majority of cases, accompanying them, and the singular 

 uniformity in size and character of most of the specimens, 

 can scarcely leave a doubt as to the fact of shoeing being 

 known at that early stage in our national history. 



The ancient Britons were, to a large extent, driven 

 out of England by the Anglo-Saxons, and either fled to 

 the continent of Europe, where they gave their name to 

 Brittany, or retired to Wales (a.d. 447) — the Britannia 

 Secunda of the Romans — where, amid their inaccessible 

 mountains, they defied their treacherous invaders, and 

 for many centuries retained their peculiar customs and 

 laws. The fact of the former may be inferred from the 

 traces of the Cromlech, the sacrificing-stone, and the 

 Druid-circle ; while from the latter, part of which may 

 have existed long ages before, but were revised by Howel 

 Dha, or the Good, on the banks of the Tav, in a.d. 911, 

 we have written evidence to prove that this handicraft 



