Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/381

 the iron plate that screens the fire is seen the gigantic aide, who appears to be engaged in blowing the bellows. He, too, is gaunt and unprotected about the lower limbs, though his brawny arms and hairy chest bespeak a man eminently fitted to perform the more physical portion of the labour. On the hearth, and partly concealed by the blazing fire, lies a piece of iron-work which looks not unlike the calkin of a horse-shoe.

These are the earliest representations of the Anglo-Saxon farrier I can find, and they are certainly curious.

In the royal household of the king's palace, we discover a number of officers similar in rank and functions to those we have already indicated as attending the Court of British sovereigns or chiefs: these are the 'hors thegn,' or master of the horse, the 'ambiht-smith,' and the 'hors wealh.' The latter has been already noticed. The rank of the Court smith may be inferred from what is mentioned in the laws of the Anglo-Saxon king, Athelbirht (6th century): 'If the king's ambiht-smith slay a man, let him pay a half leod-geld (or wer-geld, compensation money),' This was one-half the amount paid by ordinary individuals, and shows that this iron-worker was one of the privileged 'ministeriales' of the Crown.

In the laws of King Ine (7th and 8th centuries), we observe that the smith was still an important individual, and also attached himself to a lower class than the great nobles and kings. 'If a gesithcund-man (a somewhat similar rank to the leudes of the Franks and Visigoths) go away, then may he have his reeve (steward) with him, and his "smith," and his child's fosterer.'

In the Saxon Chronicle, the song on King Edgar's