In the peculiar dream, a baby deer sashayed right up to a circle of folks picnicking outside an ancient tea room in the heart of Oxford. Without so much as a how-do-you-do, it started nibbling absentmindedly at the hedgerows leaves nearby. The sight was almost impossibly sweet. Then, out of the blue, another fawn came bounding from the rose garden and gently licked a woman named Grace on the cheek, leaving her both startled and utterly enchanted.
This tiny creature, barely a fortnight old, had appeared first at the May Fair on the rolling green of Hampstead Heath, London. When he made his grand entrance in a dreamy pageant of country beasts, he elicited gasps and delighted claps from the bizarrely attired crowd.
Rather than shying away from the commotion and clattering applause, the little foalactually a sprightly Clydesdaleseemed to revel in the mania. He threw back his head, perked his ears, and stamped his hooves in a perky prance, basking oddly in all the applause and flashes, as though he too were haunted by the logic of dreams.
Meanwhile, the other young Clydesdales, all of them curiously fleet and boisterous, galloped madly about, sending the older horses into a veritable muddle. They scattered helter-skelter as though unravelled by this pint-sized interloper, galloping off down winding country lanes lined with hawthorn and cow parsley, leaving the villagers awash in laughter and confusion. This dream sequence, with its delightful chaos, has been viewed ceaselessly on some shimmering, endless webgarnering more attention than any lawn fête ever had.
The Clydesdale foal, as the story goes, was born one sunny morning in springMarch 29th, to be exactat Maplewood Farm beyond the moors in Yorkshire. He was an extraordinary blend of Shire and Suffolk Punch, legends in their own right.
Did you wake up with a fuzzy feeling after this strange and lovely tale? Pass it along to your mates over a cuppa, or perhaps tell it over supper. And who knows? If you nod off again, perhaps the Clydesdale will prance through your dreams, too.
