Lord Bonkers' Diary: Remembering my horse trials

Someone I work with told me her father says "I hope they get off" every time horse trials are mentioned. 

Wednesday

With the scents of spring in the air, I remember this morning the horse trials I used to hold every May. They were a fixture in the social calendar of this corner of Rutland and the crowds would throng the lanes that lead to the Hall. How people booed and jeered as the long-faced defendants were led in!

Time, however, moves on: juries became less and less willing to convict and Liberal social reform grew to favour schemes to divert equine offenders from court altogether. The result was that the last trials were held in 1986, but I still miss them on a day like today.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

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