KNIGHT, HESTER — Escape to the Downs

UK, Faber & Faber. 1960. Hardcover with dust jacket, 21.5cm. Ill.: Raoul Milais. Book, Less than 500g to post, previous owner name 1st pg, 104pp with bw illust interspersed throughout. Hester Knight, who for many years served on the British Connemara Pony Society Council and was President of the Society when she died, had a wonderful eye for a pony. Her daughters, Henrietta and Celia, grew up riding Connemara ponies. Info from the dj >> It all began with the Shetland pony whose longing to see for himself what the Downs were really like was equalled only by his belief that all his life he had been missing something that the big horses enjoyed. The Pekinese was easily persuaded that she was missing a treat given to the other dogs, and so an expedition was planned. The Indian mynah bird joined them because he said he could fly ahead and spy out the land; so did the guinea-pigs, after much shilly-shallying, and Syringa the hen who thought somebody sensible ought to go. They borrowed the children's little cart and each stocked it with suitable provisions before they set off at a spanking pace on a well-chosen morning when the people were not about. The road to the Downs was far longer than they had supposed- and far more dangerous. Long before the weary little party had found its way home again they understood why they had never been taken there, and that what is a treat for long-legged animals is not a treat for all. Very Good/Very Good.