JRE THEY FOOT DEFENCES? .321 



the following reasons : i. These objects have not, so far as 

 I am aware, been found in any country at a period which 

 we might designate ' pre-Roman ' — that is, in any region 

 where the Romans have not been, nor before their invasion 

 of the regions in which these articles have been discovered. 

 2,. They have been found most frequently, I think, in 

 places where the simple ordinary nail-shoe has been met 

 with, and either with it, or so situated as to show they be- 

 longed to, and were in use at, the same period. 3. The 

 evidence now collected would appear to indicate that 

 shoeing with narrow plates and nails was largely practised 

 in several countries, even before the arrival of the Romans; 

 and also that in all probability the Romans themselves 

 shod their horses in the ordinary manner at the same 

 time that these strange-looking fabrications were in use 

 for some purpose or other. The advantages of shoeing 

 by means of nails must have been very striking to the 

 Romans when they first became acquainted with it ; so 

 much so, that we should indeed think them extremely 

 stupid if they did not avail themselves of it, and still had re- 

 course to this unlikely contrivance. Cognizant of the art of 

 defending the hoof by a thin narrow plate of iron, pierced 

 with six holes, and which could be made in a few minutes, 

 and firmly secured to the hoofs in as brief a space of 

 time, it cannot for a moment be conceded that they would 

 either allow their horses to travel unshod until they were 

 foot-sore, and then apply this complicated sandal, with a 

 sole much harder than the ground, to the bruised surface ; 

 or work their horses continually with shoes which must 

 have tasked the abilities of their blacksmiths to fabricate 



in less than an hour, and have required more than three 



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