The first written evidence I can find that bears upon this point, is in the laws of Malcolm II. (A.D. 1003 — 1033), which were framed and in force for forty or fifty years before the Norman invasion of England. In one of these laws it is ordained, that when a man was condemned to death, the Crown took possession of his 'broken, unshod horses, and not more than 20 sheep, goats, and pigs,'[1] etc.
More than four centuries later, this statute appears to have been extant; for in the new law of James III. (1487, Parliament 13, cap. 113), it was limited only to those horses intended for servile work (operas serviles destinantur); for if they were unbroken (indomitos) or intractable; or broken and shod, or, in fine, capable of carrying saddles, and being ridden upon, they were not to belong to the Crown.[2]
The Norman invasion and conquest of England (1066) appears to have given rise to the supposition in many quarters, that the art of shoeing was introduced into this country by William the Conqueror. This is quite a mistake, as we have sufficiently shown. Horses had been shod for many centuries in Britain before the arrival of the Normans; and though this practice may not have been, for various reasons, a general one, yet its benefits were sufficiently manifest to make it appreciated, and resorted to in particular circumstances. Another proof, if any more were needed, that the Saxons employed this defence for their horses' feet, would be found in the fact, that Wel-
