LAFOSSE. 



473 



bered with tremendous ' crampons.' In the Gobelins' 

 tapestry, manufactured under that artist's direction, these 

 massive projections are also depicted. A shoe of this 

 description, copied from one worn by a saddle-horse, on a 

 piece of Gobelins at Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, and 

 made in 1684, will perhaps give some idea of their pro- 

 portions (fig. 182). 



In the reign of Louis XV., 

 however, the large calkins were 

 generally abolished by the far- 

 riers, though the shoes were yet 

 as long, if not longer, than be- 

 fore, and towards the heels were 

 made heavy and thick. 



Against this absurd fashion 

 Lafosse uses every argument. 

 Informing us that in Prussia, the fore-feet only were 

 shod ; in Germany, the fore and hind — each shoe hav- 

 ing three calkins ; in France, only calkins on the hind-feet ; 

 while in England the shoes were wide, thin, and with 

 thickened heels, so that the frogs could not reach the 

 ground, though without calkins before or behind ; he 

 says that all strangers visiting France carried in their train 

 a farrier to shoe their horses in their own fashion, think- 

 ing it preferable, and that French noblemen did the same. 

 Not that the mode of shoeing of any country was pre- 

 ferable to another — for native and foreign horses were 

 alike badly shod — but because it was less an affair of 

 reasoning than fancy and habit. 



'The practice of shoeing horses appears to me to be 

 good, useful, and even necessary on paved roads ; but it is 



fig. 182 



