Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/276

 is 4⅛ inches; width, 3¾ inches; breadth at toe, ⅝ths of an inch; and at heel, ½ inch. The plate is thin; at the toe, where it is strongest, it is scarcely ¼th inch. The iron is of excellent quality; and the calkin, which is formed by doubling over the end of the branch, projects about ¼th inch above the ground surface of the shoe (fig. 84). The nail-holes, three of which are yet intact, have been three on each side, and of the usual form. A small lump of rust indicates the remains of a nail-head filling up the middle hole of one branch. The border of the shoe, particularly the external one, is markedly undulating, owing to the large size of the cavity made to contain a portion of the nailhead. This cavity is ¾fths of an inch long, and ⅜ths wide; and the hole for the reception of the nail-shank is nearly circular, and has a diameter of ¼th inch: certainly the nails must have been very thick for the small hoofs shoes of this kind would fit. The weight of this excellent specimen is 3 ounces 7 drachms; so that the entire shoe may be calculated to have weighed about 5 ounces. There are no retaining clips, and the ground and hoof surfaces are flat and rough, as if carelessly and scantily hammered. Springhead, where this antique scrap was found, stands near the Roman Watling Street; and from the soil in its vicinity, which is chalky, great numbers of coins—many fibulæ, some fictilia, etc. — belonging to various periods in the early history of our