32 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



days, my father had carried me off, screaming and kicking, 

 to be put to bed for having swung a tame rabbit of my 

 sister's round by the tail. I well deserved more severe 

 punishment, and I remember the occasion, though I 

 cannot have been more than six years old, but my mother, 

 who was away at the time in the village, was most in- 

 dignant when she returned, and at once had me retrieved 

 from bed and sent off on the donkey to Thirsk to buy 

 sweets. This will give some idea as to the method of 

 my rearing, and will throw a first light on after results 

 which the anti-racing cranks naturally ascribe to racing 

 alone. 



Kilvington in the " fifties " was a strange place indeed. 

 The little old church was very primitive. The floor was 

 earth, and a plank up the aisle enabled the congregation 

 to make their way to their seats. Bones sometimes flew 

 out on each side of the plank as a brisk walker stepped 

 along. The rector's name was Henson, and he had 

 married his cook. We, through some privilege, had a 

 box pew in the chancel, and immediately opposite it 

 was a similar pew, called the " singing-pew." This was 

 never occupied except when the time came for a psalm 

 or hymn to be sung. Then the Parish Clerk, Tommy 

 Ware, a large and ponderous man, used to quit his place 

 under the reading-desk and proceed to this pew, accom- 

 panied by three or four men of the congregation. No 

 women or boys were allowed in the pew. A barrel organ 

 stood in the chancel, in the middle of the aisle, not six 

 yards from the altar. It played about twelve tunes, 

 and another large man, named Joe Morrell, used to walk 

 from his place to play it. Tommy Ware read loudly the 

 first line of each verse, thus : 



" Aa-waake, ma sowl, and with the Sun " ! 



and then they would all go off in unison at the top of 

 stentorian voices to the end of that verse, accompanied 

 by the barrel organ. Then came a pause for the reading 

 of another line, and at the conclusion Tommy Ware would 



