292 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



valued at ^^o per annum, to provide shoes for his 

 horses.' Another follower, Henry de Farrariis, or Fer- 

 rers, is said to have taken his name from the circum- 

 stance that he was intrusted with the shoeing of the 

 king s horses, or rather, the control of the shoers ; for 

 which his sovereign bestowed upon him the honour of 

 Tutbury, in the county of Stafford.^ After the Crusades, 

 when it became the custom for families to take coat- 

 armour hereditarily, a charge of six horse-shoes was as- 

 sumed by this great house.^ These armorial bearings 

 are, without doubt, much older than the regular establish- 

 ment of heraldry, and were, with the family name, signs 

 of office. ' This bearing of horse-shoes in armoury,' 

 says Guillim, 'is very ancient, as the arms of Robert 

 Ferrers, Earl Ferrers, testifieth, who lived in the time of 

 King Stephen, and who bore for his arms, argent ; six 

 horse-shoes, sable.' '^ The origin of the family name and 

 office is perpetuated by a curious custom. The town of 

 Oakham, the comparatively insignificant capital of the 

 smallest county in England, also lays claim to horse-shoes 

 in its arms, and Guillim relates that it is the chief town in 

 Rutlandshire, seated in a rich valley, and an indifferent 

 good and well-inhabited town. Here is an ancient 

 privilege or custom which the inhabitants claim, that is, 

 ' if any nobleman enter precinct or lordship, as an homage, 

 he is to forfeit one of his horse's shoes, unless he redeem 



' Diigdale. Baron., vol. i. p. 58. Blount's Tenures, p. ^o. 



' Brooke. Discovery of Errors in the Catalogue of the Nobility, 

 p. 198. ' Ibid. p. 65. 



'' The present Earl Ferrers has, as one of the supporters in his coat 

 of arms, a reindeer f//flri,W on the shoulder with a horse-shoe. — J^ide 

 Burke's Peerage List. 



