Inside Life at Big Bend Farm, According to the Estate’s Longtime Coachman

Photos by Jim Graham

George A. “Frolic” Weymouth’s shadow for 38 years, Robert Longstaff recalls life at Big Bend Farm.

The late George A. “Frolic” Weymouth had been a carriage aficionado ever since he bought his 17th-century stone farmhouse at the iconic Big Bend Farm in 1960. And Robert “Bob” Longstaff spent almost four decades riding in a cart, carriage or coach alongside or just behind him. “He thought the Bend was too pretty to see cars near the back of the house,” says Longstaff of Weymouth’s spectacular Chadds Ford estate. “He bought one turnout and kept buying them. He and friend Doug Nichols had a book—something along the lines of, ‘How to Drive a Four-in-Hand.’ They’d purchased a horse and cart from an Amish man and named the horse for the seller, Levi. It’s the horse and cart in Weymouth’s iconic painting, ‘The Way Back.’ They’d refer to the book page for page—so that was a start.”

Weymouth later invited Longstaff to drive at his Pennsylvania farm. “I came for fun and stayed for 38 years,” he says.

Before coming to America in 1980, Longstaff taught a variety of equestrian disciplines in the United Kingdom. Trainer Sally Eastman Grayburn asked him to come to the United States to take care of her horses. When he showed up, she didn’t have any. He was about to head back to England when he was introduced to Weymouth, who needed help at a drive in Charlottesville, Virginia. Weymouth later invited Longstaff to drive at his Pennsylvania farm. “I came for fun and stayed for 38 years,” he says.

Longstaff and his wife, Stephanie, met through Weymouth, and the two made a life at Big Bend, traveling with him and his horses through the countless drives here and abroad. “On one occasion [in England], we drove every day. We’d go into Windsor by the castle, turn around by the Two Brewers pub and go back down the long walk,” Longstaff remembers. “This car would come by every day—it was a green Ford Cortina station wagon. We’d stay on the macadam, and the car would go around us. Later, Frolic met the Queen, and she said, ‘Mr. Weymouth, every day for the last few weeks, I’ve had to go around your coach and horses.’”

“This car would come by every day—it was a green Ford Cortina station wagon. We’d stay on the macadam, and the car would go around us. Later, Frolic met the Queen, and she said, ‘Mr. Weymouth, every day for the last few weeks, I’ve had to go around your coach and horses.”

Back in New York, Longstaff and Weymouth took part in the 100th anniversary of the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden in 1983. “We had to deliver a proclamation from Ed Koch, the mayor of New York, so we drove the team down to the mayor’s office and waited outside forever,” says Longstaff. “Frolic said, ‘Go inside and play the horn—let him know we’re waiting.’ So I walked in with the horn, and a security guard put his hand on his holster, and said, ‘You play that thing, and it’ll be the last thing you do.’”

George A. “Frolic” Weymouth (center) flanked by Robert Longstaff (right) and assistant coachman Tristan Aldrich.

Longstaff kept the team and coaches ready at all times. Weymouth drove almost daily and often entertained guests with drives through the miles of trails at Big Bend, Point Lookout Farm and Granogue. Years after Longstaff started, Weymouth hired Tristan Aldrich, an assistant coachman also from England. “You become part of their lives,” Aldrich says. “You have to be ready to do whatever they want to do.”

Shortly after Weymouth’s passing in 2016, Longstaff was offered a position as head coachman at Buckingham Palace. He politely declined, opting to stay at Big Bend and care for Weymouth’s remaining horses. Today, he and Stephanie live in Florida. In 2019, he was invited to judge the coaching at Royal Windsor Horse Show, and he still judges from time to time. He hopes to get back up for the Devon Horse Show, where he and Weymouth’s teams participated in the coaching class for most of Longstaff’s career. “I think we won more blue ribbons than any other person in that class,” he recalls.

Stephanie Longstaff recalls a long-ago conversation with Weymouth. “If you do it my way,” he said, “we’ll all get along and have a great time.”

Mission accomplished.

Related: Turf Maintenance Is Essential for the Brandywine Valley’s Steeplechase Races