March 21st, 1657, shows that Mr Charles Smith, advocate, was admitted a blacksmith; and was pleased to produce, by way of essay, 'the portrait of an horse's leg, shoed with a silver shoe fixed with three nails, with a silver staple at the other end thereof; which was found to be a qualified and well-wrought essay,'[1]
If I remember aright, the crest of the corporation was an uncovered arm grasping a hammer, and the motto, 'By hammer in hand all arts do stand.'
A horse-shoe in my possession, dug up from the battle-field of Marston Moor (near York), and which belonged, without doubt, to some horse engaged in that slaughter (July 2, 1644), is of a good outline. Though extremely oxidized, we can yet see that it measured a little more than 4½ inches in length and breadth—the width being about one inch and three-eighths, and the thickness about one quarter inch. The foot surface appears to have been concave throughout, and without any seating for the hoof; while the ground surface is convex to such an extent that the inner circumference is much lower than the outer. I can only trace three oblong nail-holes on each side; but whether the shoe has been grooved around these or not, it is impossible to say.
The most notable work on veterinary medicine published in England in the 16th century, was that of Thomas Blundevil.[2] This, though not the first, is yet
- ↑ Transactions of the Socy. of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. i. p. 170.
- ↑ The Four Chiefest Offices belonging to Horsemanship. The Order of Curing Horse Diseases, etc. The True Arte of Pariug and Shooying all maner of houes, together with the shapes and fygures of dyuers shooes, very necessarye for dyuers horses. By Thomas Blundevil, of Newlon-Flotman, in Norlfolke. London, 1565.
