THE FARRIERS' COMPANY. 455 



March 21st, 1657, shows that Mr Charles Smith, advocate, 

 was admitted a blacksmith ; and was pleased to produce, 

 by way of essay, ' the portrait of an horse s leg, shoed 

 with a silver shoe fixed with three nails, with a silver 

 staple at the other end thereof; which was found to be 

 a rjualified and well-wrought essay.' ' 



If I remember aright, the crest of the corporation was 

 an uncovered arm grasping a hammer, and the motto, 

 ' By hammer in hand all arts do stand.' 



A horse-shoe in my possession, dug up from the 

 battle-field of Marston Moor (near York), and which 

 belonged, without doubt, to some horse engaged in that 

 slaughter (July 2, 1644), is of a good outline. Though 

 extremely oxidized, we can yet see that it measured a little 

 more than 4|- inches in length and breadth — the width 

 being about one inch and three-eighths, and the thickness 

 about one quarter inch. The foot surface appears to 

 have been concave throughout, and without any seating 

 for the hoof; while the ground surface is convex to such 

 an extent that the inner circumference is much lower than 

 the outer. I can only trace three oblong nail-holes on 

 each side ; but whether the shoe has been grooved around 

 these or not, it is impossible to say. 



The most notable work on veterinary medicine pub- 

 lished in England in the i6th century, was that of 

 Thomas Blundevil." This, though not the first, is yet 



' Transactions of the Socy. of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. i. p. 170. 



^ The Four Chiefest Offices belonging to Horsemanship. The 

 Order of Curing Horse Diseases, etc. The True Arte of Pariug and 

 Shooying all maner of houes, together with the shapes and fygures of 

 dyuers shooes, very necessarye for dyuers horses. By Thomas Blun- 

 devil, of Newton-Flotman, in Norffolke. London, 1565. 



