Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/636

 CHAPTER XIV.

Thus far, then, have we endeavoured to trace the history of horse-shoes and horse-shoeing. We have seen that there is not sufficient evidence to testify that the Greeks and some other ancient races whom we may designate 'horse-loving,' employed an iron defence nailed to the feet of their solipeds; that, though the Romans of a comparatively later age must have, to some extent, been aware of, and perhaps practised, this art, yet their writers do not mention it; and, from the testimonies before us, we might almost be inclined to conclude that the Romans only resorted to it in those countries which they had invaded or conquered, and where they already found it in use; that shoeing with iron plates and nails was known to some, at any rate, of the Celtic and Germanic tribes settled in the West probably long before our era; and