has been found; but by this piece it is easy (?) to judge of the size of the whole. The horse was a small' one.’[1]
Since Chifflet's publication appeared, relics of races whose history has never been written, and whose story has never been told, have been found in various parts of Europe and in our own country; and among these not unfrequently have appeared horse-shoes of a primitive, peculiar, and somewhat marked form, which plainly indicates that they are of high antiquity. The researches of archæologists, carefully and skilfully conducted, have, in many instances, led us to form an estimate of their age; but in other cases we are left much in doubt, from their not accompanying any remains which can be traced to any race or epoch, and also from their often occurring with relics which mark no particularly definite period.
One source from whence these memorials of an age long passed have been derived, has been the graves, cromlechs, tumuli, barrows, kists, or cairns, as the last resting-places of primitive peoples have been variously named; and their presence there has been due to the prevalence of
- ↑ Op. Cit. ‘Solea ferrea equi regii hic tota repræsentatur, etsi pars ejus tautum reperta sit; sed ex ilia parte totius formam excipere haud difficile fuit. Modicæ magnitudinis equus erat, ut jam diximus.’
Elsewhere he says: ‘Parmi les pièces que nous venous de décrire se trouverent aussi le crâne, la mâchoire et les dens du cheval de Childeric avec une partie du fer d'un pied, qui faisoit juger que ce cheval étoit assez petit. On voit souvent des chevaux de médiocre taille, qui pour la vigueur, la forme et la gentillesse, passent les plus grands. On y mit apparemment celui que Childeric aimoit le plus. La contume de ces anciens peuples étoit d'enterrer avec les hommes les chevaux et les autres animaux qui étoient à leur usage, et qu'ils aimoient le plus.’—Les Monumens de la Monanrchie Françoise', p. 235.
