434 HORSE-SHOES JND HORSE-SHOEING. 



In Scotland, it might be inferred that horses for riding 

 purposes were generally shod, though those for draught 

 were not ordinarily so, if we may judge from an act 

 passed in 1487. An Act of Parliament was passed 

 in 1 48 1, which made the smith who pricked a horse's 

 foot while shoeing it liable to furnish another until the 

 cripple was cured, or if it died, to pay its value.' This, 

 in many respects unjust, law was procured by the Duke 

 of Albany and his brother, the Earl of Mar. It is difficult, 

 if not impossible, to discover how much the unfortunate 

 farrier was likely to lose if the animal he had accidentally 

 lamed happened to die, as the value of horses appears to 

 have fluctuated considerably in Scotland for three cen- 

 turies. In 1283, for instance, a burgess's steed was valued 

 at one pound; in 1329, a courier's horse was supposed to 

 be worth five shillings; and in 1424, a colt, or horses 

 more than three years old, thirteen shillings and four- 

 pence. 



Though horses were always extremely numerous in 

 the Scottish armies, yet they were seldom, if ever, used 

 for agricultural purposes ; ploughing being generally per- 

 formed by oxen. 



For a long period, much attention had been paid to 

 breeding good horses. So early as the 13th century, we 

 find Roger Avenel, Lord of Eskdale, possessing a stud in 

 that valley. Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, in preparation for 

 his departure to the Holy Land (a.d. 1247), sold to the 

 Monks of Melrose his stud of brood mares in Lauderdale, 

 for the considerable sum of one hundred marks sterling. 



' Skee?i. Parliament 148 1, cap. 79. 



