SAINT SEFERIN SPECIMEN. 



425 



was particularly partial to ambling horses, and intro- 

 duced that unnatural pace, in order to teach them, the 

 fore-legs were trammeled or fastened together with bands 

 of yarn, or even with iron fetters ' made by the farriers, 

 whereby the unfortunate creatures were compelled to 

 move in that shuffling oblique manner so much ad- 

 mired. Sometimes, to expedite the process, the hind-feet 

 were shod with shoes having a long sharp point at the 

 toe, which struck the back of the fore-leg, and thus 

 forced the animal to make a greater effort to move the 

 manacled limb out of the way. These variations in the 

 form of the shoe are not unfrequently met with in this 

 country and on the continent, at this and a subsequent 

 period. The most remarkable example we have met 

 with is one shown by Lafosse,^ Jun., as attached to the 

 door of a chapel at Saint Severin, in France. It belongs 

 to the time of Philip the Fair (13th and 14th centuries), and 

 was supposed to have been 

 placed there by some farrier, 

 as a specimen of his work- 

 manship. Its shape is ex- 

 tremely curious, and it appears 

 to have been intended to fol- 

 low the whole natural outline 

 of the hoof — frog as well as 

 wall (fig. 154). ~ ''-''' 



It is not until a period bordering on the 14th or 



' An iron fetter and chain wliich must, I think, have been used for 

 this purpose, was discovered, with horse-shoes, at Springhead, near 

 Gravesend, and is now in the possession of Mr Sylvester at that place. 



^ Cours d'Hippiatrique. Paris, 1798. Megnin. Op. cit. p. 62. 



