442 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



were made of gold {auri Jecit Jerrari), and prohibited his 

 servants from picking these up when they fell off.' ' 



In the iith century, the first Norwegian king, Oluf 

 Kyrre, the Quiet (1066 — 1087), introduced many new 

 and extravagant customs into his country. Mr de Capell 

 Brooke, describing them, informs us that ' the former in- 

 clination of the Norwegians to magnificence universally 

 increased. Silken sails, golden shoes for their horses, 

 cushions of down with silk hangings, silken hoods em- 

 broidered with silver, gilded helmets, etc., were almost 

 necessary to those who sought the Court.' ^ 



In the Saga of Sigurd Jorsalafar, the Pilgrim of Jeru- 

 salem, or Crusader, who reigned in Norway in 1103, it is 

 told that he had his horse shod with golden shoes when 

 he rode into Constantinople, on his way to the Holy Land, 

 and so managed that one of the shoes came off in the 

 streets, but none of his men were allowed to regard it.^ 



We have elsewhere given other examples of this silly 

 fashion at this epoch. 



Even so late as 16 16, we read that James Hayes, after- 

 wards Lord Doncaster, an English ambassador, when he 

 made his public entry into Paris acted in a similar ex- 

 travagant manner. ' Six trumpeters and two marshals, 

 in tawny velvet liveries, completely suited, laced all over 

 with gold (richly and closely laid), led the way : the 

 ambassador followed, with a great train of pages and foot- 

 men in the same rich livery, encircling his horse. And 

 some said (how truly I cannot assert) the ambassador's 



' Abbatis Jornalensis. Edit. Twysden, p. 911, i6'52. 



" History of Norway from the Earliest Times, by G. L. Baden^ p. 172. 



^ S. Sturleson. The Heimskringla. 



