30 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



Ashgill in a promising manner by having a flier like 

 Miss Bowe at the very outset in his own hands. 



It is interesting to note that at the time the Osbornes 

 first became associated with Ashgill two members of 

 the Dawson family were already located at the adjoining 

 Brecongill, in the very house and stables now occupied 

 by the present John Osborne. The history of this 

 remarkable family of trainers is largely bound up with 

 Middleham. The father of the Dawsons was flourishing 

 at Gullane, N.B., as a trainer, numbering amongst his 

 employers Lord Montgomery, Lord Kelburne, Mr. W. 

 Baird, Mr. Meiklam, and Sir T. Moncrieffe — the latter 

 a man noted for unprepossessing appearance ; and yet a 

 member of the family destined to be the future 

 charming Countess of Dudley, in her prime would have 

 been " accorded the golden apple for her loveliness." 

 The eldest of a numerous family of Dawsons was named 

 Thomas, after the father. He was born in 1809, lived 

 at home across the Borders till he was twenty-one, 

 when, accompanied by his younger brother, John, the 

 eminent Newmarket trainer, he came to Middleham, 

 the brothers taking up quarters at Brecongill to train 

 on their own account in 1830. Around Brecongill there 

 hangs a rich record of stirring turf history in connection 

 with Thomas and John Dawson. Another distinguished 

 member of the family w^as the late Matthew Dawson, 

 who, on his father's death, succeeded to the responsi- 

 bilities of the establishment at Gullane that had been 

 carried on there for many years. It would have revived 

 in the late venerable Matthew Dawson's memory a 

 world, of old-time associations when he was told, as was 

 the case just before his death, that Jolin Osborne of 

 the present day could remember his first visit to 



