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 86 down hill, without a brake on the wheels. Even then he will do better than a shod horse. Here is an extract from the ‘Daily Telegraph’ of this year, January 28, in an article on the weather then being experienced: ‘As the frost had not given way, the wicked dew turned into glass as it fell in the hard roads, beaten and worn smooth by the slipping hoofs of the pitiable, but not much pitied, horses. Many severe falls were consequent on the slippery state of the carriage-ways and foot-paths; and traffic was much retarded in the busier thoroughfares of the City. Those of the West-end were, comparatively speaking, deserted; for nobody having horses of any value would willingly have had them out at such a time.’ One lady told the writer that she could not use her carriage ‘because her horses could not stand roughing, as their hoofs were too tender and delicate to bear the insertion of nails oftener than once a month.’ This lady only expressed what hundreds of others felt.

The patentees and advocates of the various systems of cogs, &c., will say that all this might be avoided if, at the approach of winter, people would have their horses shod with their variously recommended shoes; but even if they were to do so (and they do not, and will not), none of the systems are perfect. Cogs, big or small, get worn smooth in a very short time, and some of them fall out. In either case they are found not to answer; and they are not generally used, or likely to be used, whilst they only hold good for a day or so, and leave one ‘stuck’ when