4,3o HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



this period, and even up to the i6th century, necessitated 

 the employment of horses more like our lumbering 

 draught breed than chargers, and these were first obtained 

 from Lombardy. Their excellence is described by 

 Chaucer in the ' Squire's Tale ' : 



* Great was the press that swarmed to and fro, 

 To gazen on this horse that standeth so ; 

 For it so high was, and so broad and long. 

 So well proportioned for to be strong. 

 Right as it were a steed of Lombardy : — 

 Therewith so hoarsely and so quick of eye 

 As it a gentle Polish courser were ; 

 For certes from his tail unto his ear 

 Nature nor Art could him not amend 

 In no degree, as all the people ween'd.' 



But the Flemish horse, the probable progenitor of our 

 heaviest breeds, was at an early period in high repute as 

 a war-horse, and adapted to carry the enormous loads 

 imposed upon him, when pace was not so much an object 

 as strength to bear weiglit and withstand the shock of an 

 encounter with couched lances. These horses were often- 

 times severely tested before final acceptance as fit for the 

 fray ; and strong large shoes, with projecting calkins and 

 nail-heads, were not only an indispensable necessity for 

 ordinary duty, but for the more important contests in the 

 field, where a good grip of the turf by the horse's feet 

 was as requisite as a firm seat on its back. This is well 

 illustrated in the case of the redoubtable Chatelain of 

 Waremme, who, in 1325, was the leader of the Awans, a 

 powerful faction in Belgium. He was a man of such 

 gigantic bulk, that, when he was encased in his armour, 

 it required the assistance of two strong esquires to lift him 

 into the saddle. His friends, on the morning of a great 



