A VISIT TO THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
203 
for harness horses, race-horses, hunting horses, &c. By the 
side of these were other shoes, said to constitute perfection, re¬ 
markable for their breadth of fullering and depth of notch, &c. 
These shoes were indeed, outwardly, perfection, stamped, and 
plated with copper, and brilliant as they were, creditable indeed 
to the regiment of “horse guards” who used them; but then, did 
such shoeing really amount to perfection] That is the question. 
On another side is a specimen of the Manchester shoeing; 
and in another place a souvenir of Bracy Clark, in a shoe with a 
hinge; though this one was intended to be fixed to the foot 
without nails. Such, however, was the constraint exercised on 
the foot by it, that elasticity was, in truth, more counteracted by 
it than by nails, if indeed nails really do operate against the 
elasticity of the foot: an opinion more than doubtful at the 
present day. 
In all this I discover but one thing; and that is, the imper¬ 
fection of English shoeing, revealed to us as it is by the thou¬ 
sand inventions had recourse to with the view of remedying its 
inconveniences. Would the English but, in good faith, deter¬ 
mine on adopting the simple, solid, admirable method of shoeing 
practised everywhere in France, they would find no occasion 
for racking their inventions for so many impracticable devices ; 
since, in place of introducing notches and indentations of every 
fashion, they would have no more to do to obviate slipping, 
than to leave, as we do, the heads of the nails projecting out of 
their holes (which at present they do not do), and their object 
would be attained. 
Unfortunately for the feet of English horses, there is little 
chance, yet awhile, of such a change taking place in Great 
Britain. The English of the present day are very tenacious of 
their absurd system of shoeing; nor would anything, perhaps, 
short of a revolution compel them to alter their opinion: a 
tenacity, indeed, difficult to understand on the part of a nation 
so ready to avail itself of, and carry into practice, the various 
improvements of the day, come from what quarter of the world 
they may. 
For a long time English shoeing has been condemned; and 
during my stay to London I had opportunities of verifying such 
condemnation by witnessing the practice of it at the principal 
veterinary forges—at the Veterinary College—at the barracks 
of the Life Guards—at the brewery of Messrs. Barclay and 
Perkins, where 186 horses are employed—at Mr. Field’s, whose 
infirmary and forge are the largest and best in London; and in 
several other forges besides. Wherever I went I made the same 
observations on the effects of their straight, thick, ill-fashioned 
horseshoes, destitute of ajusture, level from toe to heel, and 
