Munnings records a childhood visit to the circus at Harleston with his governess in his autobiography (An Artist's Life, Suffolk, 1950, p.16), 'I could never understand the appearance of the piebald and skewbald horses. I saw them in a strange, mystic light - a glow; and one in particular, with a lovely lady in pink tights on its back, seemed to be coloured like a strawberry shorthorn cow'