GOOD BREEDING (12 page)

POSTSCRIPT

Understandably enough, the people of the island I have called St Kelmo are not keen to recall or celebrate
their colonial past, therefore it was difficult to do much research. However I do believe I have identified
Jacaranda
, it stands beside what is quite a main road now and is a rather rundown hotel. At the rear are extensive gardens
, now on the verge of disappearing under forest
and at the back of these are ruins that I suppose to be the old East house. A
fter a three day stay
and much poking around
, my Master and myself made a fascinating
and conclusive
discovery. Buried in overgrown shrubbery beside a dilapidated gazebo, we found a small stone plinth about three feet high.

On the top of this was the most exquisitely cast bronze figuri
ne depicting a ponygirl. She is
poised on one foot, in the act of running flat out, her other leg bent up under her in an athletic posture as she
is bringing
it forward for her next stride. Her hands are clenched around the shafts of the racing trap she is pulling, although the sculptor stopped with just depicting the wood she was actually holding. H
er thick hair is blowing in a po
ny tail behind her – her
actual
tail is gracefully swinging behind her flying legs and - this I adored – her tongue is depicted firmly clamped between the plates of the devilish split bits so popular on the pony racing circuits of the day
.

Alas, bronze does not lend itself to depicting the driver’s whip which must surely have been plied vigorously to induce such a headlong dash for the line, but the sculptor has left us some testament in the form of grooves criss crossing the well toned flesh.
Over
all her figure matches the tall, big breasted beauty of the early portraits I had seen
of Clara Bestwood
.
And at her pubic mound
was a depiction of a letter ‘J’ branded into her flesh.

S
he was
a delight
,
but the icing on the cake was the inscription on the plinth which read – and you may be sure we made copious notes!

“
Jacaranda
Fancy, winner of the Rosebowl meeting sprint; 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834. Winner of the Rosebowl two mile handicap, 1832, 1835, 1836.

Winner of the Rosebowl three mile handicap; 1833, 1834, 1837.

Winner of the inter-island challenge cup; 1832, 1833,
1834, 1835, 1836, 1837.”

Winner of four ‘best in show’
rosettes and ‘placed’ more often than there is space to record here fully.
”

I had followed a long trail to find Clara Bestwood and to document her part in the extraordinary events surrounding that extraordinary man, the ninth Duke of Loughmore
, but here at last I felt I had found her. I had intended to see if I could locate her final resting place as there are no records of her ever having returned to England. But, as my Master said, such a remarkable tribute to such a gifted pony must surely represent her spiritual home.

We left her there, a
nd I trust that there she is still; poised, graceful, athletic and beautiful
.

As far as one can tell, Adam Bestwood did return to these shores as an old man
, wealthy and reclusive. But he seems to have lived out the few days left to him, alone, apart from a maid he engaged at Southampton. One can only assume he had his memories to keep him company.

K.F. Nottinghamshire, England, 2006

THE END