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ashgill; or, the life 



that laid the foundation of the Turf fortunes of Lord 

 Falmouth (who, by the way, sold his mammoth stud 

 shortly after Aldcroft's death), the great jockey rode 

 one of the finest races ever seen, when she bore him to 

 victory in the Oaks of '63. He was on Ellington when 

 that horse won the Derby for Admiral Harcourt, who 

 predeceased him only a few weeks. Twenty years prior 

 to his decease, Aldcroft was at the head of his profession, 

 and was first jockey for Lord Glasgow, who on his death 

 bequeathed him £500. Never was there a more wrong- 

 ful suspicion cast upon an innocent man than when it 

 was alleged Aldcroft had illicit relations with John 

 Jackson, w^ho on his deathbed said that, so far as he 

 knew, Aldcroft had never done anything dishonest. 

 The impression arose out of General Peel in the Derby. 

 For the St. Leger another jockey was preferred to ride 

 " The General," in whom Lord Glasgow had high hopes 

 of winning his first Derby — ^hopes never to be fulfilled, 

 even though he probably spent almost a million of money 

 in the effort during his extended connection with the 

 Turf. With the change of jockey General Peel did 

 not do so well as before, and his after career proved him 

 a faint-hearted, soft brute. The following season Ford- 

 ham rode him in the Ascot Cup, when he ran the dead 

 heat with Ely. He cut it so abominably in the decider 

 that Fordham, in disgust, threw the reins on the horse's 

 neck and made no effort to finish on him, whereat Lord 

 Glasgow was highly enraged. 



Charles Lund, the present-day trainer at Spring 

 Cottage, Malton (the old home of Blair Athol and 

 William F Anson), recounted to us on a visit to him 

 in 1898 the following version of General Peel's display 

 on the occasion above alluded to. Lund was head 



