Country Life
BY IAN MALL NOT unnaturally, when petrol is about to be rationed, one thinks of alternative ways of get- ting about. Without motor spirit one's pro- gress is likely to be slower—Shanks's pony. We had horses thirty to forty years ago. Per- haps not so many horses as our grandfathers kept, but enough ponies and cobs or old grey mares to jog between the shafts of gigs or governess carts. I was brought up to think of a day's travel as the limit to which a pony could comfortably go. It was a world of brass lamps (candle-lit), travelling rugs, muf- flers and, to protect us from the rain, oil- skins. 'Go out and buy a pony and trap,' whispers a small voice from the past. Was it not the way to travel, with a light heart and the cool breeze in our hair and a song to sing if we had a mind to?
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