Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/472

 chivalry often rose to as fantastic heights as in this extravagant display of James Hayes. For instance, when Alexander III. of Scotland repaired to London, attended by a hundred knights, at the time of the coronation of Edward I., the whole party, as soon as they had alighted, let loose their steeds, all most richly caparisoned, to be scrambled for by the multitude. This was probably new to the English chivalry, and no doubt startled them not a little: five, however, of the English nobles immediately followed the example set them.

In the 16th century we have a complete treatise—the first, on shoeing, from the pen of Cæsar Fiaschi, a masterly production of its kind, and in which no less than 35 chapters are devoted to this subject. From the care with which they are written, the sound sense that pervades many of them, the faculty of observation, and the great number of shoes devised to meet certain wants, we conclude that this artist was no ordinary workman, but an enthusiast in hippology—a man of talent, and a scholar. His masterly production forms the basis of nearly all the treatises subsequently written on horse-shoeing. The space at our disposal permits but a very limited notice of its contents. The first chapter, which serves as an introduction, makes known that 'there are found to-day very few good