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Horseshoe,
Carlisle
A very ancient horse-shoe was recently found, embedded in
solid clay, four feet deep, in Mr. Cowen's brick-field, on
the banks of the Eden, near Carlisle, a little beyond where
the Roman wall crossed that river. It is of an extraordinary
size, weighing no less than twenty-eight ounces. There were
originally thirteen nails in it, extending all round the
front, eight of which still remain in an almost perfect
state. It is much wider than the modern shoe; and the hollow
is filled up by a thick plate of iron, as if destined to
protect the foot of the horse from the spikes used in
ancient warfare, and continued down to the Border contests,
in order to check the operations of cavalry. The situation
in which it was found, buried so deep in pure clay, implies
an antiquity much greater than the period of the
moss-troopers, or the wars of the Bruces and the Edwards.
PHILO.
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