56 ashgill; or, the life 



CHAPTER V 



"Whate'er with Time hath sanction found 

 Is welcome, and is dear to me." 



That the racecourse had an irresistible charm for the 

 striphng little " Johnnie " Osborne is gathered from his 

 own statement that he slipped from the village school 

 of Brompton-on-Swale to see the races at Catterick, 

 which is quite contiguous. One wonders if the long- 

 since departed old pedagogue, who taught " Johnnie^s " 

 young idea how to shoot, was " hossey " inclined. If so, 

 he would wink at the insubordination of his young 

 charges when they slipped away to creep under the 

 racecourse rails. This would occur in the days of Bee's- 

 wing. We opine there are few men living who can 

 boast of having seen Catterick races as far back as 1839 

 and 1840, when old Bee's-wing was a cup winner at 

 the still extant old-fashioned Yorkshire fixture. Listen 

 to what " Mr. John " has to say of his experiences in 

 those days — 



" I was at Catterick races when Bee's-wing 

 beat Penitent in '39 ; and in '40, Hydra, Philip, 

 and Bee — the latter belonging to my father — 

 went down before Squire Orde's grand old mare. 

 I saw Charles XII. in '41, there being only three 

 runners that year. Kaiser, a horse owned by 

 the Duke of Cleveland, got his foot in a hole and 



