Jerry’s New Year

Christmas and the New Year are very merry times for some people; but for cabmen and cabmen’s horses, it is no holiday, though it may be a harvest. There are so many parties, balls, and places of amusement open, that the work is hard...

Old Captain, and his Successor

Captain and I were great friends. He was a noble old fellow, and he was very good company. I never thought that he would have to leave his home and go down the hill,* but his turn came: and this was how...

The Butcher

I saw a great deal of trouble amongst the horses in London, and much of it that might have been prevented by a little common sense. We horses do not mind hard work if we are treated reasonably; and I am sure there are...

Poor Ginger

One day, whilst our cab and many others were waiting outside one of the Parks, where a band was playing, a shabby old cab drove up beside ours. The horse was an old worn-out chestnut, with an ill-kept coat and bones that showed plainly...

The Golden Rule

Two or three weeks after this, as we came into the yard rather late in the evening, Polly came running across the road with the lantern (she always brought it to him if it was not very wet). ‘It has all come right, Jerry; Mrs....

The Horse Fair

No doubt a horse fair is a very amusing place to those who have nothing to lose; at any rate there is plenty to see. Long strings of young horses out of the country, fresh from the marshes; and droves of shaggy little Welsh ponies,...

A Humbug!

My master was not immediately suited,* but in a few days my new groom came. He was a tall, good-looking fellow enough; but if ever there was a humbug in the shape of a groom, Alfred Smirk was the man. He was...

How it Ended

It must have been nearly midnight, when I heard at a great distance the sound of a horse’s feet. Sometimes the sound died away, then it grew clearer again and nearer. The road to Earlshall led through plantations that belonged to the Earl: the...

Earlshall

The next morning after breakfast, Joe put Merrylegs into the mistress’s low chaise to take him to the vicarage; he came first and said good bye to us, and Merrylegs neighed to us from the yard. Then John put the saddle on Ginger and...

The Fire!

Later on in the evening, a traveller’s* horse was brought in by the second ostler, and whilst he was cleaning him, a young man with a pipe in his mouth lounged into the stable to gossip. ‘I say, Towler,’ said the ostler, ‘just run...