614 
ON SHOEING HORSES. 
facility of supplying the sizes of shoes and nails, an object of con¬ 
venience at all times, and of great importance to an army on 
foreign service.” I had been anticipated in this part of the sub¬ 
ject by Mr. Goodwin, in carrying out his excellent invention of 
casting shoes. He had twenty-seven sizes, which ran close between 
5 inches and 7 inches diameter; the horses’ shoes, of -^th of an inch 
difference in size, are thirty-two in number; therefore, only four 
shoes could be found in the boxes to fit, twenty-eight horses had to 
be fitted. The Caliph, I make no doubt, from his previous know¬ 
ledge of practically shoeing cavalry in India, felt it his duty (as I 
should have done) to inquire into the sizes, in case the boxes 
should be sent with him on service in Europe, where, without a 
forge cart, he might be obliged to set to in the Indian manner, and 
fit out. He knew that troop horses had numbers, and if he only 
had the blank forms near the horses’ sizes, he would be able to 
accomplish what he wanted, i. e. shoe a whole troop without a 
forge cart. 
Tell us, Jack, how to do this. What, not gone, you rascals! 
You cried out Ca, Ca, Ca, Caliban, 
I have got a new master, 
Get a new man; 
And here you are still. I will not. 
Pray, go on with the Caliphs, then. 
I will not do that either. You have been “ doctoring ergo, 
you are “ thus clever in what can be seen,” you “ must be clever 
in whatever else relates to a horse.” 
I have been abroad for many years, where, if I had asked for 
ether to use, I might have asked in vain, as I did once for blister¬ 
ing ointment, when the contractor told me he would write to a 
friend 500 miles off to catch some flies. Well; Mr. Mayhew re¬ 
commends ether. Am I to place confidence in this gentleman, or 
am I to whistle, or say with John Follit, 
Are you friend, are you foe ? 
Come, quick, let us know. 
Are you either or neither, pray, ether ? What would this gentle¬ 
man think of me I I have the test of Caliph Gloag’s dissection 
and experiments in support of what I advanced for the improve¬ 
ment of this branch of the art, and an attempt is made to whistle 
me down the wind, like Jekyl, who put the Board of Ordnance to 
£45 expenses for five lame horses, and sent them back worse than 
they went to him. I have not caused any of you expense. 
Vanish, all of you, but the boy. I may make something of him ; 
he, at least, shall shoe horses as I wish to have them shod. Com- 
