108 



ashgill; or, the life 



means or other. Poor fellow! he was killed on 

 the spot, and was brought here to be buried in 

 Coverham Churchyard. He was a Lancashire 

 lad, and was married to my sister at Coverham 

 Church. I daresay it was my sister's wish that 

 he was brought here to be buried. 



" Speaking of old Middleham trainers, I can 

 just remember old Bob Johnson, of Tupgill. He 

 rode Dr. Syntax in nearly all his races. Then he 

 trained Bee's- wing and Nutwith, when he won 

 the St. Leger. Bob Johnson rode General Chass^ 

 at Liverpool the first time he ran, and won. He 

 was a great slug of a horse, and after the race 

 his owner asked Bob what he thought of ' The 

 General.' ' He's a nice donkey kind of a devil, 

 Sir James,' was Bob's reply. Sir James had to 

 call in the aid of Thomas Dawson to interpret 

 Bob's description of his horse. I couldn't be 

 certain whether Mr. Dawson trained General 

 Chassd or not, but I know Mr. Fobert trained him 

 for the St. Leger. I can remember old George 

 Gates having two or three horses in training at 

 Middleham after I came from school. Of course 

 I can well remember Thomas Dawson and John 

 Fobert. Paddy Drislane? yes, of course, he w^as 

 here first of all as head man with Fred Bates, 

 and then he started training on his own account. 

 I think Warlaby was the best horse he had. He 

 was head man at Tupgill when Bates had Tam o' 

 Shanter in the Chester Cuj). They made an 

 attempt to back the horse for that race, but 

 found they couldn't get any money on. ' Lave it 

 to me, 'pon my word,' said Paddy to Fred Bates, 

 ' and you'll get the money on.' So Paddy pre- 



