Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/263

Rh amount of metallurgic skill that it secretly practised at Alesia and elsewhere. Fierce and undaunted in battle, the ancient Britons were also a horse-loving people, and largely employed horses in peace, as well as in war. They appear to have been passionately fond of horses, as the fragments of their poetry that have reached us abundantly testify: and it would almost appear that all their fighting men were mounted on spirited steeds. Whether ridden by their fearless masters, or harnessed to the multitudes of chariots so conspicuous in their armies, the little hardy British steeds appear to have been well trained. Cæsar's first impression of them was anything but favourable to the expected success of the Roman arms. When attempting to land upon our coast, he thus describes them: 'The barbarians (as was then the fashion to designate our valiant woad-stained forefathers), upon perceiving the design of the Romans, sent forward their cavalry and charioteers (essedarii), a class of warriors of whom it is their practice to make great use in their battles; and following with the rest of their forces, endeavoured to prevent our men landing. In this was the greatest difficulty, for the following reasons, namely, because our ships, on account of their great size, could be stationed only in deep water; and our soldiers, in places unknown to them, with their hands embarrassed, oppressed with a large and heavy weight of armour, had at the same time to leap from