ON HOUSE-SHOES. 
657 
of a small size, broader than the shoes found in Lothbury and 
Moorfields, is pierced with square nail-holes, and the heels 
beat up into calkins, calks, caukers, or cramps, as the points 
at the extremities of the quarters are termed.* 
The earliest horse-shoe, the date that can be fixed with 
precision, is that which w r as discovered in the tomb of 
Childeric, King of France, at Tournay, in 1653. He succeeded 
his father Meroveus in 458, and died in 481. This shoe was 
of iron, of a small size; and if we are to trust the represen¬ 
tation given of it by Montfaucon in his c Monumens de la 
Monarchie Frangaise / p. 235, it much resembles the one 
found in Hungary. It had four square nail-holes on each 
side, and calkins at the heels. 
If, then, the Germans, the Vandals, and the Franks, em¬ 
ployed iron shoes which were nailed on the foot of their 
horses, we might naturally expect to find them in use amongst 
the cosanguinei, the Saxons. 
There is, however, but slight evidence that they shod their 
horses in the modern manner; I have, indeed, seen a shoe very 
like in form to that found in the grave of Childeric, which 
was said to have been discovered with Saxon weapons in 
Kent. It was of a small size, very thin, and much oxidized. 
Dart, in his ( Eboracumj page 84, states that at Battle Flats, 
six miles east of York, the scene of a conflict between Harold 
and the Norwegian invaders, 1066, are frequently found in 
ploughing a very small sort of horse-shoes, which would only 
fit an ass or the least breed of northern horses. These cir¬ 
cumstances would incline us to think that the Teutons shod 
their horses. 
The idea that the Normans introduced the practice of 
shoeing horses in England probably arose from the great 
importance that they seemed to attach to farriery, which 
is clearly evinced by the privilege granted to certain persons 
for attending to the shoeing of the royal horses. It is said that 
Henry de Farrariis, or Ferrers, who came over with the 
Conqueror, received his surname from being intrusted with the 
inspection of the farriers, and that the king bestowed upon 
him the honour of Tutbury, in the county of Stafford. It is 
also recorded that William the Conqueror gave to Simon St. 
Liz, a noble Norman, the town of Northampton, and the whole 
hundred of Falkley, then valued at per annum, to pro¬ 
vide shoes for his horses.f 
We also find it stated that Gamelhere held two carucates of 
* It is engraved by llymsdyk, in the c Museum Britannicumj tab. ix, 
p. 26. 
f ‘Dugd. Bar./ i, 58. 
XXXIV. 
49 
