4 ashgill; or, the life 



O'Fairlie. From 1843 he had both Brecongill 

 and Tupgill for his horses, but he left Brecongill 

 in 1849 and went to live at Tupgill. Mr. George 

 Dawson and Mr. John Dawson, brothers of 

 Thomas, lived in Middleham when I first 

 remember and had some horses, but they both 

 left Brecongill to become private trainers for 

 Lord Glasgow at different times. Mr. John 

 Dawson did not succeed with Lord Glasgow, 

 who failed to keep his trainers for long, 

 particularly his private trainers. Thomas 

 Dawson gave up Tupgill and went to Thorngill, 

 and died there in 1880. He was a great trainer. 

 I think he had a good mare called Fairy while 

 he was here at Brecongill, and she ran for the 

 Oaks in 1834. After that he had St. Bennett, 

 St. Martin, and Bellona, a good mare. He 

 had Lanercost at Brecongill as a three-year-old. 

 Then there were also Aristides, Our Nell 

 (winner of the Oaks in 1842), Blue Bonnet 

 (winner of the St. Leger the same year). These 

 Vv^ere the first races that Our Nell and Blue 

 Bonnet ran for, and neither of them won a race 

 afterwards. That is a remarkable thing, without 

 any parallel in the history of racing I should 

 fancy. Other good winners at Brecongill trained 

 by Thomas Dawson were Potentate, Zohrab, and 

 Jamie Forrest. 



" After 1843, Lord Eglinton left Mr. Thomas 

 Dawson and engaged John Fobert as private 

 trainer at Spigot Lodge. Still, Thomas Dawson 

 had plenty of horses to train, and continuing 

 the list there were Godfrey, iVUendale, Mentor, 

 Traverser, and Jonathan Wild. Inheritress, too. 



