402 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



Iron horse-shoes were at this period, according to 

 Mr Rogers, ' sold by the hundred, and nails by the 

 thousand, as at present. In 1265, we find the former 

 articles selling at Dover 225 for 5,?. ^\d. per hundred, 

 and nails at is. 3d a thousand; whereas at Odiham, in 

 Hampshire, 84 were purchased for 5.?. 6Jr/., and 1000 nails 

 at IS. id. These prices vary considerably, but in in- 

 creasing proportion up to 1398, when we find 26 fore- 

 shoes sell at Oxford for 16s. 8d., and 22 hind-shoes at 

 12^. 6d.; while nails at the same place, in 1390, were 

 2s. 6d. per hundred. 



In the accounts and annals of farms and estates 

 during the 13th and 14th centuries, it is shown that the 

 chief expenditure incurred in the keep of horses was the 

 cost of shoeing. In the earlier part of this period, shoes 

 were occasionally made, it appears, out of the iron pur- 

 chased by the chief bailiff, and fashioned by the village 

 smith. But shoes were nearly alv/ays bought ready-made, 

 and in considerable quantities. They must, indeed, have 

 been very slight, and little more than tips ; the necessity for 

 strong shoes, in the absence of hard or well-metalled 

 roads, not being so urgent as now-a-days. It is possible, 

 also, that the hoofs of horses have in our time become 

 less solid, in consequence of the continual paring and 

 mutilation which the modern system of shoeing involves. 

 If we compare the price of iron by the hundred with the 

 cost of shoes, says Mr Rogers, and remember also that the 

 charge of working iron was generally almost equal to that 

 of the material, we shall find that the media3val horse-shoe 



' History of Agriculture and Prices in the 13th and 14th Centuries. 

 Vol. ii. p. 328. 



