630 
NOVELTIES IN SHOEING. 
supposed that reason had resumed her sway ; but, however, I was 
wrong, as, early in the present year, I received a visit from one of 
the parties, and he stated that the other had withdrawn ; but that, 
being the principal projector, he had so good an opinion of the 
merits of his projection, that he now came to offer a half share of 
this very valuable affair. To carry on the farce, a letter was sent 
to him, asking for the proposed means of meeting the necessary 
outlay, and what might be the presumed advantages of a pecuni- 
ary nature to be expected, — -in fact, only necessary business in- 
formation. But to this a very lame reply was received ; and, of 
course, a plain refusal followed to have any thing to do with the 
affair. But nothing could make the party give up his idea : for 
months he tried to persuade the writer into a better opinion of its 
very manifold advantages ; and, at last, the affair was brought to a 
conclusion by asking whether, by the proposed plan, it was practi- 
cable to compete with the present price at which horses are shod, 
viz. at 3s. 6d. and 4s. per set 1 With a sigh he confessed that he 
did not see that they could ; and he left, evidently exceedingly 
crestfallen. 
I have been rather prolix in this account, because of the perti- 
nacity with which an object totally impracticable was pursued ; and 
as soon as an objection was started, the returning on another day 
with a statement that it could be overcome : but it always hap- 
pened that a little inquiry proved the fallacy of the assertion. 
It appeared, during the course of the negociation, that the pro- 
jector was an “architect,” and as plausible and pertinacious an 
individual as it was ever my lot to encounter. 
Whether he has succeeded in gaining any party to undertake a 
share with him, I know not ; but, as I have not heard of any thing 
of the sort, I suppose that it is for the present dormant. The last 
account I had of my friend the architect was, that he was con- 
cerned with the working of a patent cowl or chimney-pot to cure 
smokey chimnies ; but whether they are as valuable as his pro- 
posed plan of shoeing, I have yet to learn. 
The first I heard of the second novelty was in the foregoing pro- 
jection; but several months elapsed before an opportunity offered 
of testing these Indian-rubber soles, and it then appeared that they 
were composed of caoutchouc and cork in very small pieces. A 
light thorough-bred mare was brought to me to be shod, with a 
request that the rims, which were brought with her, should be put 
on under the shoes of the fore feet : it was accordingly done. 
There was not much difficulty in their application, but they cer- 
tainly were not so easy to be put on as leather. Either on the 
third or fourth day the mare was brought back to have the shoes 
removed, and the remains of the “patent rims” taken off. Dur- 
