134 AT THE SIGN OF THE STOCK YARD INN 



interest in the production of Shires, Hackneys, 

 Hunters and ponies. As a boy he was sent out to 

 render some non-military service in the Crimean 

 campaign. It is related that he exchanged his ration 

 of rum with the soldiers for candles to enable him 

 to sit up late at night and play cribbage, of which 

 card game he was very fond. In later years he 

 often told the story of how the first horse he ever 

 owned be bought with money won at this pastime 

 in Crimea. While we may not encourage our own 

 youth to get a start in live stock in this particular 

 fashion, it was at least to young GILBEY'S credit 

 that he traded off the rum instead of drinking it 

 himself. Probably that is one reason why he won 

 at cribbage over those who disposed of their pota- 

 tions with less wisdom. He lived to develop a 

 business as a wine merchant which paid into the 

 royal exchequer taxes aggregating one million pounds 

 sterling annually! So much for his capacity as a 

 business man. 



At Elsenham he devoted his great talents and 

 his ample fortune to arousing England to a realiz- 

 ing sense of the importance of maintaining and 

 still further improving the native breeds of horses 

 and ponies. He was at different times President 

 of the Shire Horse Society, the Hackney Horse 



