Starting from number eleven there are five new photographs on the Photo Page.
View of Coombe Abbey. Bec
Close up of the moat. Bec.
The very long driveway up to the Abbey. Bec.
The entrance door to the hotel. Bec.
We spent the Saturday after Christmas at St. Augustine, Florida. At the Fountain of Youth, a wedding was going to take place. The bride and groom arrived in the carriage shaped like Cinderella’s pumpkin pulled by a pair of black horses. They were beautiful and so very gentle. The bride is in the red dress. Karen, Florida (USA)
Karen’s photograph of the Wedding Carriage brought back memories of when I had a small collection of Carriages myself. I got involved in them in a Carriage that I purchased in Somerset, whilst on Holiday at a Friends before we moved to Denbury. Knowing nothing about Carriages I paid at the time a lot to much for it, but it started my interest in Carriages and their history.
Although I was quite a reasonable Carriage Driver, I was always fearful that the Horses I was driving may get hurt in my care, for that reason I chose to let other Coachman drive for me.
There are some excellent Coachman to be found and I was lucky to have found two of them whilst I had Driving Horses. One in particular was a Coachman that had helped Prince Philip with his Team of Competition Horses. The Coachman had also worked driving the Harrods Horse Drawn delivery van around London.
Whilst two of my Driving Horses Kane and Abel were being trained, we had them in Livery with the Coachman in Seven Oak in Kent. They were there in the great gale when the Seven Oaks were blown down. That was not the only bad memory that I had of the area in that year, for there was a serious fire at the stables where many of the Horses died. Fortunately Kane and Abel were in a part of the barn that escaped the fire.
The fire was started deliberately by a Lad who was known to the owners of the Stables. He had a mental problem and was seeking attention. He believed that he would be a hero by saying that he had found the Stables on fire and had gone in and saved the Horses by letting them out. That was never going to happen. A Horses Stable is to a Horse a safe place. In a fire instead of running from the Stable to escape it will believe that it to be a safe place to be, and will stay until it is to late.