THE MOONWORT AND ITS ALLIES. 53 



ers and so set the matter at rest. The old botanist, 

 Culpepper, who, wrote about 1650, says of the moon- 

 wort's reputed power to unshoe horses " Moonwort is an 

 herb which they say will open locks and unshoe such 

 horses as tread upon it ; these some laugh to scorn, 

 and these no small fools neither, but country people 

 that I know, cal it Unshoe the Horse ; besides I have 

 heard commanders say that on White down in Devon- 

 shire near Tiverton there were found thirty hors-shoes 

 pulled from the feet of the Earl of Essex, his horses 

 being there drawn up in a body, many of them but newly 

 shod and no reason known which caused much admira- 

 tion ; and the herb described usually grows upon heaths." 

 Another ancient writer has done the idea into rhyme, as 

 follows : 



" Horses that feeding on the grassy hills, 

 Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels, 

 Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home, 

 Their maister musing where thir shooes be gone. 

 O moonwort, tell us where thou hid'st the smith 

 Hammer and pincers thou unshodst them with. 

 Alas, what lock or iron engine is't 

 That can thy subtile secret strength resist, 

 Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoe 

 So sure, but thou so shortly cans't undoe." 



There was, however, some protest against these beliefs 

 as may be seen from this quotation from Parkinson. " It 

 hath beene formerly related by impostors and false 

 knaves, and is yet believed by many, that it will loosen 

 lockes, fetters and shoes from those horses feete that 

 goe in the places where it groweth ; and have been so 

 audatious to contest with those who have contradicted 

 them, that they have been known and scene it to doe 

 so ; but what observation soever such persons doe make, 

 it is all but false suggestions and meere lyes." Accord- 



