Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/454

 15th century, or perhaps much later, that we find evidences of the employment of the grooved or fullered shoe in England; and then we can only infer that it was imported from Germany and the Low Countries. This is somewhat remarkable, if we consider that this kind of plate is very ancient on the continent, M. Quiquerez tracing it back to the 5th century, and the Emperor Napoleon allotting it even to the era of the conquest of the Gauls by Julius Cæsar. We may entertain some doubt of the latter being correct however, as M. Megnin has examined these Alesia specimens, and found many, if not all, with the undulating border. Shoes, we have seen from Mr Rogers's History, were largely bought in England ready made, and by the hundred, and many of these may have been imported. In Mercer's History of Dunfermline, it is stated that in the 15th century, Flemish horse-shoes were in demand in Scotland: 'Flanders was the great mart in those times, and from Bruges chiefly, the Scots imported even horse-shoes, harness, saddles, bridles, cart-wheels,' &c.

All those found with the groove round their margin, so far as I can learn, have been of comparatively large size. One here represented (fig. 155) was found at Springhead, near Gravesend (England). Its measurement indicates that it would fit a tolerably well-bred horse about 15½ hands high, or a coarse-bred one of a less height. Its length is 5 inches, width 4⅞ inches; the breadth is variable;at the toe and one of the quarters it is 1¼ inch, and at the heels as much as 1½ inch. The