AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 399 



days when, as a lad, he looked after Squire Orde's grand 

 old mare. Soon after old Jim's death at Belleisle the 

 family circle was broken up, but the veteran left two 

 sons in James and John, who are now upholding his 

 name and fame as successful trainers, the one in France, 

 and the other in Newmarket. 



Well on to a period of forty years has the writer, as 

 a newspaper-press man, been identified with racing. 

 Part of his professional duty was to describe " Morning 

 Gallops " — a much-faded institution in this era of quick 

 railway transit, though in the old days of the Newcastle 

 Town Moor, when the Northumberland Plate attracted 

 some three hundred thousand spectators, the early' 

 exercise of the " Plate " horses was only second in 

 interest to the actual contest itself. Perhaps the 

 reader, if not already aweary of his long pilgrimage 

 with us in these pages, may glance with interest at a 

 snapshot from " Saxon's " pen descriptive of the scene 

 at Gosforth Park, in the early morning of a 

 Northumberland Plate day, before the inhabitants of 

 the not far distant " cannie toon " have been unlocked 

 from the embrace of Morpheus. The scene is laid 

 in the beautiful demesne of Gosforth, and some of 

 the moving figures will easily be recognised. How 

 the years speed away! Is it possible that twelve 

 months have rolled into the lap of Time since last 

 the early morn visit was paid to Gosforth's vernal 

 scene on a similar mission to that which calls forth 

 "Saxon" from his couch? Yes, my good fellow, you 

 are a year older, not merrier or richer, if worldly goods 

 mean being rich. That lack of nervo-muscular force, 

 which was once largely yours, plainly tells that Time, 

 the inexorable, is bringing you down to his level. But 

 in such a vernal scene of beauty as this, with Nature's 



