NOTES ON A ROMAN HIPPO-SANDAL.

BY STEWART F. WELLS, ESQ.

(Read 16th May 1894.)

THE Roman object here figured was found in Great Swan Alley, Moorgate Street, last March, about 17 ft. below the surface, and is a shoe for a beast of burden. The inside length is 5 in.; the width between side-wings or clips, 4 in.; this being the broadest part, both before and behind being narrower; length of front hook, 6 in.; the entire length from loop to hook, 9 in. The ground-surface is furrowed or grooved, evidently to prevent the animal from slipping. The grooves are rather uncommon. They do not occur on a single specimen in the Museum at the Guildhall. I have opened up two of these, and you will observe they are very deep for the thickness of the iron. The small hook was placed behind, and the long iron part with loop in front; not vice versa, as I stated last time. A strap was placed through the loop and hook, and fastened round the fetlock and shank of the horse, and the wings pinched in to hold it in its position. I fitted this one to a cow. It fitted fairly well; but I did not test how the animal could walk, for fear she might damage the shoe.

What these objects were used for seems a disputed point with some antiquaries. Besides horse-shoes, some call them temporary shoes for horses with tender feet, lampstands or lampholders, stirrups, skids for wheels, etc. An antiquary very conversant with these matters suggested to me that we were looking at the thing upside down; but he could throw no light on the subject in that position, and I have not been able to find any one who could make any suggestion as to the purpose for which it could have been so applied. Captain Fleming, in his work on Horse-shoes and Horse-shoeing, illustrates a large variety of these objects, but says, "I cannot believe that these hippo-sandals were ever made for such a purpose: extremely few horses, if any, could travel on the roads.

ascending or descending steep places, nor yet move with any speed." In the first place, Captain Fleming seems to forget that the large-hoofed horses were not introduced into England till the time of Henry III; and further, that the hoofs of the barbarians' horses were very small and secondly, these shoes, it is certain, were not intended for fast-going horses, but for beasts of burden, mules, or oxen, or, I might suggest, for oxen ploughing. Then, instead of hippo-sandal, they should be called mulo- or bu-sandals.

In Holland, at the present day, they bind long, flat, iron shoes to the hoofs of their horses. Mr. Rich, in his Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities, says "that neither the Greeks nor Romans were in the habit of nailing pieces of iron to the hoofs of their horses" (?). By the kindness of Mr. Walter de Gray Birch, F.S.A., I was able to inspect the collection of ancient horse-shoes at the British Museum, labelled by Mr. C. Roach Smith. On the under part of one is fixed a piece of iron of a similar pattern worn by the horses of to-day. This specially impressed Mr. Birch, who before he saw this was not inclined to accept the statement.

One point which strikes me in favour of the horse-shoe is the hardness of the earth attached to the under-surface of the shoe. On the one before us it is particularly hard, and on those at the British Museum seemed equally so. This would not arise by simply lying in the ground for a number of years, but through constant pressure on the earth, such as by the tread of a horse. Therefore this does away with the theory of stirrups, lamp-holders, or other domestic arrangements that have been brought forward. The only other theory is that of a skid for wheels, which of course would collect the road-grit; but this would be a mere toy for such a purpose, and much too small to receive the wheel of a Roman chariot or waggon. Mr. H. Syer Cuming tells me most emphatically that they are hippo-sandals. In the Brit. Arch. Journal (vol. xxxii, p. 107) one of these objects is figured, which was exhibited by the late Mr. Bailey, and is now in the Museum at Guildhall, together with five other examples found in London. The British Museum has three, which were originally in the collection of Mr. C. Roach Smith.

The back-hook, with a small portion of the sole, was found in London Wall in 1890, and is now in my collection. In the Arch. Journal (xi, p. 416) one is figured as a lamp stand,-length, 9 in.; breadth, 4 in. Portions of these shoes have been found at Silchester (see Archaologia, lii, p. 11).

Those who are against the theory of shoes say that we should find sculpture or pictures with the horses wearing these shoes, and they call them skids. Why do we not find the skids represented? Mr. Syer Cuming tells me they were only locally used, according to the condition of the roads. They have been found in England, Germany, France, and Switzerland; but I find no mention of their having been met with in Italy. This would account for their not being represented by the Roman artists. One rather conclusive piece of evidence, which has been so often quoted, is on the authority of M. Troyon, who asserts that he found shoes of a similar pattern on the skeleton of a horse or mule at La Grange in Switzerland. Now if we can rely on the testimony of this antiquary,and I see no reason why we should not accept his statement, then the raison d'être of these objects is made clear.

In a subsequent discussion on this object, Mr. Barrett read the following notes:

1894

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