THE HORSE THAT CAME FROM THE SEA

Illustration by Sheila Rose

A short story, set on the coast of Ireland. Bridget is the only child of a poor farming family. She escapes to walk the shore when she should be in bed and sees a white horse come out of the sea. It grazes their land, then returns to the sea. Is it a fairy horse ? From the island off-shore ? It isn't, and the sensitive story is one of the author's best. It catches the Irish without parody, and deals with superstition without ridicule. And it has a happy ending !

First edition: in `By Special Request' an anthology of nineteen pieces by different authors, selected by Noel Streatfeild; illustrators: Sheila Rose, Richard Kennedy, Mary Gernat, Shirley Hughes and Milein Cosman; Introduction and postscript by Noel Streatfeild; pp246-255.

Reprinted:

Second Impression March 1954
Third Impression November 1955
Fourth impression September 1958: blue boards; decorated front and spine in gilt; decorative endpapers; 256pp; dustwrapper not seen.