PRICE OF HORSE-SHOE NAILS. 407 



and it must have been of such temper as to insure its 

 toughness and endurance. To judge by the price, the 

 horse-shoe nail must have contained two-thirds more iron 

 than the lath-nail, and about half as much as the broad 

 nail. The price of these nails rises and falls evenly with 

 that of horse-shoes. During the first ninety years, they 

 are dearest in the years 13 11-20, and though the price 

 declines slightly after this time, it does not revert to the 

 cheap rates of the thirteenth century. After the plague, 

 the rise is instant and permanent, the rate being doubled, 

 and remaining high, the dearest time being, as before, the 

 decade 137 1 — 1380. Evidence for the last ten years is 

 wanting, but judging by the exactness with which the 

 price of these articles follows that of horse-shoes, we might 

 certainly affirm that if the latter stood at. from 8.?. ^d. to 

 8.?. the hundred, the former would be about 2.y. 6d. the 

 thousand. The general rise on the average of the last 

 forty years is not, indeed, quite so large as that of horse- 

 shoes, though it is upwards of 100 per cent.; but it will 

 be remembered that the rate of horse-shoes for the last 

 ten years is excessive, and the evidence insufiicient.' 



The annexed illustration, from the Louterell Psalter, 

 represents a waggon-team ascending a terribly steep hill, 

 the horses' feet being shown as well armed with shoes and 

 large-headed nails (fig. 149, next page). This drawing is 

 of great interest in many respects, but particularly as dis- 

 playing the mode of harnessing and driving draught horses 

 at this period, as well as the construction of the waggons. 



In the reign of Richard II. (1377-99), from a bailiff's 

 account of a manor in Surrey, it appears that the fore- 



