was particularly partial to ambling horses, and introduced that unnatural pace, in order to teach them, the fore-legs were trammeled or fastened together with bands of yarn, or even with iron fetters[1] made by the farriers, whereby the unfortunate creatures were compelled to move in that shuffling oblique manner so much admired. Sometimes, to expedite the process, the hind-feet were shod with shoes having a long sharp point at the toe, which struck the back of the fore-leg, and thus forced the animal to make a greater effort to move the manacled limb out of the way. These variations in the form of the shoe are not unfrequently met with in this country and on the continent, at this and a subsequent period.
 |
| fig. 154 |
The most remarkable example we have met with is one shown by Lafosse,[2] Jun., as attached to the door of a chapel at Saint Severin, in France.It belongs to the time of Philip the Fair (13th and 14th centuries), and was supposed to have been placed there by some farrier, as a specimen of his workmanship. Its shape is extremely curious, and it appears to have been intended to follow the whole natural outline of the hoof—frog as well as wall (fig. 154).
It is not until a period bordering on the 14th or
