32 ashgill; or, the life 



battle. Lanercost was at Brecongill as a three-year-old, 

 but was transferred to the care of " Brother Mat " just 

 before the St. Leger of 1838. 



In rapid succession the brothers Tom and John 

 Dawson trained such clinkers as Priestess, Rowena, 

 Fair Helen, Malcolm, Lady Masham, Traverser, 

 Lightwing, Mentor, Ellerdale, EUermire, Inheritress, 

 Ellington (winner of the Derby), Mark Tapley, Fancy 

 Boy, Chief Justice, Jonathan Wild, St. Bennett, 

 Grimston, St. Martin, Abraham, Newland, Modesty, 

 and Dr. Caius. Grimston won them the Goodwood Cup 

 and Jonathan Wild the Stakes for Mr. O'Brien the same 

 year. St. Bennett took the Northumberland Plate — a 

 great event in those days — in 1838 and 1839, and 

 Inheritress in 1845, Ellerdale capturing the Yorkshire 

 Oaks and Raby the Cambridgeshire in 1849. 



Lord Glasgow had horses in training at Middleham 

 about 1849, and after John Dawson had failed, as many 

 others of his craft had done, to please that nobleman, 

 he left Thomas by himself at Brecongill and went to 

 Compton in Berkshire, there establishing himself in 

 a career which, like that of his brother Mat, subse- 

 quently culminated at Newmarket in a record of brilliant 

 successes that rival even those of John Scott himself 

 in the pahniest days of Whitewall and Pigburn. 



In 1838-39 Polydorus did not do much good for 

 John Osborne; he only began to really pay his way 

 three seasons after ; but Skipton, by Stockport, proved 

 a useful introduction to the strugghng stud. He was 

 never beaten while at Ashgill, winning four times, when 

 " Old John," always ready to turn over at a profit, sold 

 him to Squire Osbaldeston. Then there was another 

 useful inmate of the stable in Ararat, who won a 

 handicap in the "Potteries" and several other races 



