I wanted one as a child

I didn’t often want things when I was little; as long as I had a book to read and some pencils and a paper to write and draw on then I was pretty content. I had a little red trike (tricycle) which I think was second-hand, then a green bike which was also second-hand… and I had the usual things like roller skates and a hula hoop, and we played games like cowboys and Indians and going on adventures… but I always longed for a pair of stilts but we made do with two Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup tins with strings attached that we could stand on, pull the strings and walk around… and although I was never very good on a borrowed pogo-stick, I did think I would like to have one…

But, the thing I really wanted was a hobby-horse. I’m not sure I ever saw anyone with one, they were really from a by-gone age, but I had seen plenty of illustrations of children playing with them n the old books I had. I don’t know if they were books which had belonged to my parents when they were young and were handed down to us, or whether they were just acquired from somewhere else, but we had a lot of old children’s books, some even going back to the nineteenth century. There were pictures of children astride their hobby horses, looking as if they were having such fun! I had to make do with an imaginary horse, and there was a special sort of gallop children did then when they were pretending to ride. I’m sure most children these days have no idea what cowboys even are, let alone pretend to gallop round on a pretend horse!

We saw these hobby-horses at Killerton, the Devonshire stately home, just lying on the grass for children to play with… I was so tempted…!!