Give Me a "C"

"Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie

Why does a chicken ...?  I don't know why.

Ask me a riddle and I reply,

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie"

-- from Winnie-the-Pooh or The Hums of Pooh by A.A. Milne

We've now arrived at the letter "C" in our alphabetic exploration of some of the model horses in my herd.

One of my very favourite "C" horses is "Cottleston Pie," a second-version Beswick "Stocky Jogging Mare" in basic Beswick bay/brown.

"Cottleston Pie"

It probably seems to be a silly name for this particular horse.  It is, of course, a nonsense name.  There is no such thing as "Cottleston pie" although the words do suggest a savory pie such as cottage pie or shepherd's pie, and some enterprising foodies have come up with recipes for "Cottleston pie" on their own.

And then there's the problem with the "Pie" part.  Even I, occasionally, regret having used this name on this model when I really should have followed Velvet Brown's example and saved a name with "Pie" in it for a piebald horse. 

But then, the Beswick "Stocky Jogging Mare" and I have never really been on the same page.

The first Beswick I ever bought for myself was a palomino third-version "Stocky Jogging Mare" in an eyeball-searing orange that really made her stand out from all the others on the shelf.  Or should I say, really made "him" stand out?  For some odd reason, I've never been able to see the Stocky Jogging Mare as a "mare" in any of her incarnations.  Every time I look at "her" I see a very pleasant, willing gelding, thus a "him" rather than a "her."  And I just can't seem to change that impression in my mind.

I can see the "stocky" part in this version, but not the "mare."

For years, I didn't even know that "Stocky Jogging Mares" versions one and two even existed, but once I saw pictures of the earlier two I figured that was it -- I never expected to see one in real life.

Which brings us to "Cottleston Pie's" story.  It was a cold March day in 2008 and I was meeting a group of friends downtown to go to a theatrical performance.  I got to the meeting spot way too earlier, so I decided to while away the time (and get out of the wind) by browsing around an antique and collectibles shop in the area -- in fact, just across the road from where I needed to be.

As I normally do, I searched the store for equine collectibles -- books, pictures, figurines -- it didn't really matter what.  And there, in the showcase beneath the cash register, I saw him -- the second version Stocky Jogger.  I knew right away what he was but still could hardly believe my eyes.  I asked if I could see him and looked him over carefully.  As far as I could tell he was perfectly mint.  But the best surprise was when I asked his price -- the sellers weren't charging very much for him as he had no backstamp so they could not guarantee that he was, in fact, a Beswick.  But I'd seen older Beswicks before, and I was convinced that he was.

They wrapped him up in a bit of newspaper, put him in a plastic bag, and away I went to meet my friends.  None of them were model horse people, but I told them I'd just purchased a rare object and needed to be extra careful with it.  With very little wrapping and no protective box, he seemed impossibly fragile to me but there was nothing I could do about it -- the show was about to start and I had no time to get to my car and pack him safely away.  So he nestled carefully between my feet throughout the whole performance (I did NOT get up for the intermission) and then came home with me to be ogled gleefully the rest of the night.

(Beswick experts on Facebook have since confirmed my suspicions that he was the real deal.  Of course, no one can say for sure without actually handling the piece, but while I'm not an expert I have enough experience to be convinced myself.  It's not at all uncommon for Beswicks of this period [1941-47] to lack backstamps.  It's just one of those things that makes Beswick collecting so intriguing.)

So how did "Cottleston Pie" get his name?  He pretty much named himself -- the name was just there in my head before I even became aware of it.  Part of it may have been because I found him "across the road" from where I was supposed to be -- as A.A. Milne puts it in Pooh's "hum": "Why does a chicken ... [cross the road]?  I don't know why."

It also may be that I was humming this little tune to myself as I floated out of the store with the plastic bag in my mitts.  I don't have a clear memory of doing this, but it wouldn't be unusual for me -- as a child I had an LP record that had most of the "hums of Pooh" on it and I know them all so well that I quite often break into one or the other of them at the drop of a hat.  "Cottleston Pie" is a whimsically happy "hum," and my favourite verse in it is the one about the chicken (there are also verses about flies, birds, and fish).

At any rate, despite all the things that are wrong about this particular name for this particular horse, it just seemed to be the right name for him.  Why? 

Ask me that riddle and I'll reply, "Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie."