Daisy rides again
ON a sunny day in early summer, the Georgian-fronted esplanade at Weymouth in Dorset is looking its elegant best. Beyond the flapping windbreakers and Punch and Judy show, a string of stoical donkeys carries swaying children across the sands, as they have for more than a century. Beach donkeys are as essential an ingredient of the British seaside as sticks of rock or fish and chips, but, 20 years ago, it looked as if the tradition could become extinct, with an increasing number of businesses closing as their owners retired. In the past decade, however, there has been a remarkable revival. Now, more than 900 of the animals ply their trade around the
