'It was the Honourable John Montagu, Lord Montagu's son, who was driving this contraption, and I was very sorry to see that his father allowed him to do it. But Jack, needless to say, thought it was wonderful.

'"That's the future, Dad. That's the future," he cried.

'And it was this talk of the future, on our way home that day, which led me to raise the subject of his own.'

George levered himself out of his chair and went over to the window. Outside, the poles that carried his favourite runner beans seemed to occupy his attention for a while. Then he shook his head almost angrily and turned round.

'You must understand that around the turn of the century the New Forest was going through a period of what you might call success. Many farmers and landowners in England had been badly hit, even ruined, by all the cheap grain coming in from America. But there was a big demand for dairy products. So the smallholders in the New Forest were doing quite well. The ponies were fetching good prices. Some went to the coal mines as pit ponies - they were very sturdy, you see; and others, sad to say perhaps, went over to Flanders to the horsemeat market. There was also work to be had doing jobs for the new people coming to live at places like Lymington. The price of land was going up, so some people made a bit by selling building plots. All in all, life in the Forest wasn't bad.

'I'd been working as an agister many years now. I'd saved up a bit. It seemed to me a good idea to start Jack off with a little smallholding, which I was in a position to do. So I made my offer.

'"Thank you, but no thank you," he said. Just like that.

'"Oh?" I said. "Then what plans have you, might I ask?"

'"I'm going to be an engine driver on the railways," he said.

'I wasn't best pleased, as you can imagine. "Well, I suppose," I said, "you could get a place by Brockenhurst," thinking this was near the railway station. But he shook his head.

'"I'm leaving the Forest," he said.

'"Leaving the Forest? Where would you go?"

'"Southampton, I should think. Or London." He gave me this rather pitying smile, which I didn't appreciate. "I don't just want to stare up the back of a cow all my life. It's boring."

'And then I argued with him. And then he said some things that I don't care to think about as they don't matter any more. One thing he did say, I shall always remember. "Before long, Dad, we won't even be needing horses any more."

'I thought he must be daft.'