Kenilworth Chapter IX

In which the learned traveller Tressilian, hindered by a lost horseshoe and obscure roads, encounters a quaint hamlet where erudition and rustic superstition mingle in the person of Master Erasmus Holiday and his peculiar household. Here, amid latin phrases and village gossip, Tressilian gains a whimsical guide to lead him to the strange and secretive artificer known only as Wayland Smith, whose skill in horse-shoeing is both marvellous and mysterious.