The favourite amusement of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret was mechanical horses

The favourite amusement of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret was mechanical horses. Not, of course, that the girls had not been riding since earliest childhood, and Elizabeth simply adored all horses, both her own and those passing by their house, and the Guards' chargers too. She even said that, were she queen, she would forbid anyone to ride horses on Sundays, so that these animals might have a rest at least once a week, "and I shall not allow anyone to cut off the tail of their pony". So the love of mechanical horses was part of a love of the whole equine race. The girls were given bits of toy harness and saddles, which they polished themselves, and they dressed and tended their toy horses. In the grounds stood a glass pavilion where thirty mechanical horses were housed: this was the children's stable, and the number of its inhabitants grew steadily. Even when the girls grew up, their old friends were not forgotten, and moved with them to Buckingham Palace, where they lived on for a long time, standing in a corridor