that very long ago there may have been a ford at this place, and that these articles were then lost in the clay by horses in crossing. They are evidently Celtic, or Romano-Celtic, if we compare them with those from the graves in Gaul. Of the three represented, figure 86 is apparently the oldest; next, figure 85; and lastly, figure 87. All have been worn; all have the irregularly undulating border, the peculiar groove, nail-holes, and calkins, and the characteristic nail-heads. Figure 85 is a comparatively large shoe, and figure 87 a small one. They are very thin, and do not exceed ¼th of an inch in thickness. The nails in 85 and 86 have the points turned in a similar manner to those of Silbury Hill; and figure 87 alone appears to have been wrenched off while the horse that wore it was alive. The stalks or bodies of the nails are shorter and more square than we now use them, and the heads are of the semicircular T pattern. The calkins stand about ¼th of an inch higher than the shoe.[1]
It may be observed, that in the same museum are the remains of a chariot, and the bones of a man, horse, and pig, which were collected in a barrow not far from York; but I cannot ascertain that any shoes were found. With specimens of Romano-Celtic shoes—that is, of shoes of this pattern found associated with Roman remains—we are more liberally furnished; for it must be confessed that those which we might at a hazard term 'pre-Roman' are extremely scarce.
At Colney, in Norfolk, were discovered Roman urns,
- ↑ I am indebted to A. J. Owles, Esq., Enniskilling Dragoons, for photographs of these fine specimens.
