16 



firm conviction, that she would leave her shoes one after 

 the other at the turn of the furrows. He drove her home 

 fifteen miles that evening, and the next day wrote me, that 

 she had ploughed from nine 'till twelve, and returned to the 

 stable with her shoes as firm on her feet, as when she left 

 the forge ; 'and so they continued, when I saw her a fort- 

 night afterwards. The shoes were of the ordinary make, 

 with the web of equal width all round. This case led to 

 another friend volunteering his horse for five nails for hunt- 

 ing : 1 accordingly attended at the forge, and saw, what I 

 now call the hunting shoe, put on with five nails. The 

 horse returned from his work, as 1 expected he would, with 

 his shoes all right, and he has since worn out many pairs 

 of such shoes. 



I was enabled to prove the sufficiency of five naUs for 

 carriage work beyond all dispute through the kindness of 

 the late Mr. Cockram, the mail contractor, of the New 

 London Inn, Exeter, who several years ago permitted me to 

 try the plan upon the horses of the day mail to Falmouth, 

 the fastest mail in England, and the result was in the 

 liighest degree satisfactory ; tlie shoes not only continued 

 firm upon the feet, but not a single instance occurred of a 

 clench having started. 



About this time an Officer of the Horse Artillery, who 

 happened to be on a visit in Exeter, was so good as to 

 call upon me, for the purpose of informing me, that the trooj), 

 to wliich he was attached, stationed in the north of England, 

 had tried my jjlan very successfidly both upon the officers' 

 and ti'oop horses, many of which had then been working 



