Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/471

 horse was shod with silver shoes, lightly tackt on; and when he came to a place where persons or beauties of eminency were, his very horse prancing and curvetting in humble reverence threw his shoes away, which the greedy understanders scrambled for, and he was content to be gazed on and admired till a farrier, or rather the argentier, in one of his rich liveries, among his train of footmen, out of a tawny velvet bag took others and tackt them on, which lasted till he came to the next troup of grandees; and thus, with much ado, he reached the Louvre.'

At a still later period, we find Duke Eberhard of Würtemberg causing his dead charger to be skinned and stuffed, and its hoofs shod with gold shoes, before being set up at Stuttgart. The creature had saved his master's life by swimming with him at the battle of Hochstadt, 13th August, 1704; but was accidently shot eight days afterwards, through the carelessness of one of the duke's followers.

Von Tschudi mentions that during the brilliant period of the Spanish domination in Peru, like signs of wealth and foolish display were in vogue among the conquerors. Incredible sums were frequently expended on carriages and mules; and very often the tires of the caleza wheels and the shoes of the mules were of silver instead of iron. A Tartar song of the 14th century causes a Mongol khan to say, 'Bid the horses be put to my golden chariot, and let them be shod with golden shoes and silver nails.'

The liberality of the knights during the hey-day of