140 HORSES AND ROADS. 



thus grow, only proves still more clearly that Nature 

 is extending her help to the animal, in so far as she 

 is allowed to do so. Here comes in the superiority 

 of the Charlier shoe over all others. As it is let 

 into the crust, the frog has no forced growth to 

 make, but remains (in this respect only) as if the 

 horse were unshod. So does the sole ; but the crust, 

 even with this best of shoes, still gets mutilated 

 with nails. ' Of evils choose the least.' The Charlier 

 tip offers the least destruction to the foot, at the 

 same time that it gives greater holding powers to 

 the horse than anything yet invented in the shape 

 of shoes. In his ' Lectures on the Examination of 

 Horses as to Soundness,' published in 1878 — Modern 

 Horsey Literature — Mr. Fearnley tells his pupils : 

 * The day will come, but perhaps it will not be in 

 our lifetime, when the streets of our large towns 

 will be paved rationally (with wood pavement), and 

 then, happy day! we shall have horses wearing 

 on their forefeet at once the most scientific as it is 

 the most common-sense shoe — the Charlier. The 

 stone pavior will cost the country many millions of 

 pounds in horseflesh before the revolution comes 

 about, but no doubt it will one day become a State 

 question.' 



Think of this, ye societies who have misunder- 

 stood your self-imposed tasks, and ye vestrymen 

 who have squandered public funds, and ye horse- 

 owners who have squandered your own, and ye 

 journalists who keep upon the old track and offer 

 questionable advice ! Eemember that it comes from 



