UPON TRAINERS. 209 



horses, when he wished them to go to the post in first-rate form 

 was admirable, and, alone among trainers, he never allowed his 

 Derby or St. Leger favourite to gallop on the day before the 

 race. As regards the training of two-year-olds, he had become 

 an old man before he seriously understood that thenceforward 

 he would have to regard it as the most important part of his 

 professional business. 



Perhaps the best all-round trainer of the three was Thomas 

 Dawson, from whom his three brothers Matthew, Joseph, 

 and John Dawson learnt in great measure the mysteries of 

 their difficult and responsible craft. Thomas Dawson, who 

 trained at Middleham from 1830 until he died there in 

 1881, was not supported, as a rule, by such wealthy and 

 fashionable patrons as gave their adhesion to Danebury 

 and Whitewall. He dealt, therefore, with a rougher class of 

 animal than his two great rivals, and turned them f as it must 

 be admitted, to excellent account. Perhaps the brightest ex- 

 emplification of his skill was displayed in the preparation of 

 Lord Eglinton's Blue Bonnet for the St. Leger of 1842, of 

 Admiral Harcourt's Ellerdale for the Great Yorkshire Stakes 

 of 1847, and of his Ellington for the Derby of 1856. It was 

 always the keynote of Tom Dawson's system, as of that of his 

 three brothers, that horses differ as much in temperament and 

 constitution as human beings. A recent writer has spoken of 

 him thus : 



Mr. Thomas Dawson, of Middleham, is the originator of the 

 modern and improved system of training thoroughbreds. He was 

 the first to see the fallacies of the old method, and to act upon his 

 own well-considered opinions. He did away with the drenchings, 

 profuse sweatings, and short supplies of water, introducing in their 

 stead plenty of old oats and hard work. Mr. Matthew Dawson to 

 this day often quotes ' My brother Tom ' as an oracle on horseflesh, 

 and the thanks of owners are justly due to him for the radical and 

 salutary change he has effected in the training world. 



Upon this passage we may remark, first, that Joseph Daw- 

 son was more in the habit of quoting ' my brother Tom ' with 



p 



