374 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



paying him the tribute of a cask of wine ; and all the 

 workers in metal who sought to open shops in Besanqon 

 had to pay him a tax of as much as hve sous. When 

 the Archbishops of Besanqon, or their assistant-bishops, 

 entered the town for the first time, the marechal escorted 

 them, and afterwards claimed the horses or mules they 

 had ridden, as also the cup with which they had made 

 their first repast. When it happened that the emperor 

 came, the same right was exercised, but onlij on the con- 

 dition that the marechal had previously garnished with his 

 oiun hands the hoofs of the monarches steed with four silver 

 shoes / ' ' 



The Normans, on their arrival in France, were, like 

 the Saxons and the Franks, far behind the Celts and Gauls 

 in equitation or their management of the horse. On their 

 reaching Neustria, Wace, the troubadour of the 12th 

 century, sings : 



N'etoient mie chevaliers 

 N'ils ne saroient chevalchier 

 Tot a pie portoient lor armes. 



And Hollo, the ^Walker,' as the chroniclers tell us, never 

 rode.^ Yet they soon conformed to the customs of the 

 people among whom they settled, and in a hundred and 

 fifty years after disembarking from their ships, they had 

 established the finest studs of horses in France. So that 

 we need not be surprised that the Norman princes should 

 also have instituted the office of ' March-shall,' to super- 



' Mem. Soc. d' Emulation. Besaii9on, p. 379, 1859. 



" E. Hoiicl. Hist, du Cheval. Sniir/snu. Heimskrino:la. The 

 Saga in this work says he received the sobriquet in consequence of his 

 enormous size ; no horse could be found to carry him, so he vi'as com- 

 pelled to walk. 



