AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 347 



up with the lark, friendly as ever, and oblivious of the 

 terrible debate of the night before. John Osborne had 

 been sleeping the sleep of the just during the hours 

 " ayont the twal." He appears on the vernal scene, 

 maintaining his reputation as the " early bird." He 

 has a team of about a dozen animals on the course. 

 " But," observes a bystander, to whom John's age had 

 been stated, " that, surely, is no man of fifty-three years 

 of age." We point out to him a youthful, active, 

 pleasant-faced gentleman of some five feet in stature, 

 and inform him of the fact that that is John Osborne, 

 who has passed the wrong side of fifty ; that he won the 

 One Thousand in '56, Derby in '69, the Oaks and St. 

 Leger in '74, and the St. Leger of '63, to which 

 achievements as a horseman many a hundred more 

 could be added. " Yes, that is John Osborne, trainer, 

 breeder, owner, and jockey, lord of the manor of 

 Bellerby, patron of a church, a man who rarely misses 

 walking twenty miles a day to keep down his bodily 

 weight so that he can follow the profession he loves so 

 well; a man who is respectful to all, familiar with 

 few; a man who knows the value of silence, and so is 

 a wise man." 



All along in our history John Osborne has been 

 made the central figure, but it should be said, in justice 

 to his brother William, that he had most to do with 

 the preparation of the horses. William, through life, had 

 been a comparative hermit at Ashgill, yet his kindness 

 of heart resulted in his being idolised by his neighbours. 

 Though a sportsman to the backbone, he was rarely, 

 after his father's death in '65, seen on a racecourse. 

 During our acquaintance of nearly thirty years, the 

 ^vriter did not meet him, except on one occasion, away 

 from the old Yorkshire home. That occasion was the 



