THE LONDON HORSE AT HOME 99 



foot. Iron nails inflict the worst injuries, and when 

 * demolitions ' are going on, or masses of broken 

 material are being carted through the streets, drags 

 and vans are often sent by circuitous routes in order 

 to avoid the nail-studded roadway. Proper shoeing 

 is almost as important as daily foot examination 

 for these bulky horses. * There is no animal more 

 carefully shod than a brewer's horse,' writes Mr. 

 Gordon. ' At Courage's, for instance, no such things 

 as standard sizes are known. Many have a different 

 make and shape of shoe on each hoof. The shoe is 

 always made specially to fit the foot, and these are never 

 thrown away, but are mended soled and heeled, in fact 

 by having pieces of iron welded into them again and 

 again. Some of the shoes are steel-faced ; some are 

 barred, the shoe going all round the foot ; some have 

 heels, some toes ; some one clip, some two. In fact, 

 there are almost as many makes of shoes as in a 

 Northampton shoe-factory.' 



Mr. Gordon has a separate and amusing treatise on 

 nearly every branch of the London horse- world, from 

 the Queen's c Creams ' to the funeral steed and the 

 typical cab-horse. His story of the request that King 

 William IV. would delay hastening to the House to 

 dissolve Parliament in 1831, in order to give time for 

 the cream-coloured State horses to have their manes 

 plaited, and the King's reply, < Plait the manes ! Til 



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