materials continues for centuries after the time before us. Thus, although at a very early time horse-shoes were bought by the hundred at fairs and market-towns, they were also fashioned out of the bar-iron bought annually by the bailiff for the use of the farm. This revolution in the relations of employer and artisan was effected, of course, not only by the fact that the latter obtained better terms for his labour, but because he had become possessed of capital, was able to lay by a portion of his gains, and could therefore work for a future market.' 'Any person,' says the Professor, 'who studies, even superficially, a farm account at the beginning, and another at the end of the 14th century, must obtain indications of the change which has taken place in the habits and in the condition of the labouring classes. So, out of the gains which were thus amassed, temptations to spend coming but little in the way of the mediæval labourer, those estates were purchased on which the yeomanry of the 15th century lived in comfort.'
'Equally characteristic is the history of the price of horse-shoe nails. These articles were purchased at the same times and places with the shoes. Knowing what horse-shoe nails must have been, we can readily judge from the price at which they were purchased, what was the size of other nails. These nails, bought by the thousand, were made, it is probable, with broad heads, the grooved shoe being, considering the price of iron and the lightness of the plate, an invention of later times. But the nail must have been of length sufficient to pass through so much of the hoof as would serve to keep it tightly on,
