48 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



indeed, is inclined to esteem Alice Hawthorn the 

 grandest mare ever foaled. 



Alice Hawthorn died in 1861, in the twenty-third 

 year of her age. Only a short time prior to her decease, 

 Touchstone, the then venerated " King of the Turf," had 

 " paid forfeit," and the death of " Alice " who, in those 

 days of stayers, was dubbed the " Queen of the Turf " 

 was mourned as a national loss. At the time of her 

 death she v/as under the care of Mr. Winteringham at 

 the Croft Stud, near Darlington. A few statistics, 

 extracted principally from the Racing Calendar of 

 those distant days, will readily show that she really 

 had been a " Queen of the Turf." She started for 

 seventy-one races, and of these she won not less than 

 fifty-one. She also ran a dead heat, and the stakes 

 were divided. She was placed, when not a winner, 

 ten times; unplaced (but some of these were won by 

 an animal out of the same stable), nine times. In 

 1842-3-4-5 she won stakes, as per the Calendar, of the 

 value of £8500, viz., sixteen cups, including the Chester, 

 Doncaster, and Goodv/ood Cups, and the Queen's Vase 

 in addition to eighteen Queen's Plates. The amount 

 of money she won was small in comparison with our 

 days of " ten thousand pounders " ; but when it is 

 considered she did not run for any of the rich two- 

 year-old stakes, it is large. She w^as not trained until 

 July or August, in 1841, although she was then, and for 

 some time afterwards, called a three-year-old, whereas 

 she was really 3^ years old before she was broken in. 

 Her racing career may be said to have commenced in 

 1842, the first win being the Chester Cup, and she was 

 so soon found to be a Cup animal that there was little 

 chance of getting her reasonably in for a handicap; 

 hence arose the great number of Queen's Plates and 



