4o5 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



materials continues for centuries after the time before us. 

 Thus, although at a very early time horse-shoes were 

 bought by the hundred at fairs and market-towns, they 

 were also fashioned out of the bar-iron bought annually 

 by the bailiff for the use of the farm. This revolution in 

 the relations of employer and artisan was effected, of 

 course, not only by the fact that the latter obtained better 

 terms for his labour, but because he had become possessed 

 of capital, was able to lay by a portion of his gains, and 

 could therefore work for a future market.' ' Any person,' 

 says the Professor, ' who studies, even superficially, a farm 

 account at the beginning, and another at the end of the 

 i4tli century, must obtain indications of the change which 

 has taken place in the habits and in the condition of the 

 labouring classes. So, out of the gains which were thus 

 amassed, temptations to spend coming but little in the 

 way of the mediaeval labourer, those estates were pur- 

 chased on which the yeomanry of the 15th century lived 

 in comfort.' 



'Equally characteristic is the history of the price of 

 horse-shoe nails. These articles were purchased at the 

 same times and places with the shoes. Knowing what 

 horse-shoe nails must have been, we can readily judge 

 from the price at which they were purchased, what was 

 the size of other nails. These nails, bought by the 

 thousand, were made, it is probable, with broad heads, the 

 grooved shoe being, considering the price of iron and the 

 lightness of the plate, an invention of later times. But the 

 nail must have been of length sufficient to pass through 

 so much of the hoof as would serve to keep it tightly on. 



