Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/407

 remover dicel, obole; et pur fer de courser, ii deniers obole; et pur fer de destrer, iii deniers; et pur removere un diceux, i denier.'

From Letter-Book G, dated from A.D. 1353 to A.D. 1375, and preserved in the Records of the City of London, we make the following extract:

'Item, qe Mareschal preignent pur ferure des chivalx, cest assavoir, pur fer de viii clowes, ii deniers; et de meyns, i denier obole; et pur remover, obole.'

That the designation was general wherever the Normans had established themselves in England, is proved by the accompanying drawing (fig. 144) from the brass matrix of a curious seal now in the possession of Mrs Wooler, of Darlington, and which was found at Piersbridge, near that town. A farrier displays a horse-shoe, heavy and clumsy, and pierced with six almost square holes, as well as a shoeing hammer and two nails, as a badge of his craft, the legend around them being S. Radul, Maréchal d' l'Evechie d'Dureme—which signifies that it was the seal of Ralph, farrier to the bishopric of Durham.

The word mareschal remained in vogue in England long after the Norman French had ceased to be the popular or Court language, though it generally gave place to 'farrier,' 'ferrier,' or 'ferrator,' a designation which had also