458 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



to US at York that he feared no jockey more on the post. 

 After Archer's defeat on the occasion to which we refer, 

 he counselled poor Harry Constable, Lord Rosebery's 

 favourite jockey, then in the zenith of his brief-lived 

 fame, to "keep his eye on the 'old push and screw' 

 merchant." This advice was tendered to Constable in 

 a subsequent race at the same meeting. Constable, 

 making light of Archer's hint, ridiculed the idea of the 

 " old 'un " stealing a march upon him in the last stride 

 or two, as he had done to the chagrin and surprise of 

 Archer. With a knowing wink. Constable remarked, 

 " I shall diddle the old man, you'll see, Fred." But the 

 boot was on the other leg, as this identical race was a 

 repetition of the finish with Archer. A hundred yards 

 from the chair Osborne was apparently " down the 

 course," and Constable, to all intents and purposes, was 

 cantering home a winner. Fifty yards from home 

 Osborne came with one of his tremendous rushes, and 

 won on the post by a short head. There was much 

 chaffing and laughing at Constable when he came back 

 to the weighing-room, where "Johnnie" was dressing 

 himself without saying a word, though his face wore 

 the eloquent smile of satisfaction every one has seen 

 after he had done a young 'un in a close finish. Archer 

 fairly put " the fat in the fire " when he jocularly 

 recalled his advice to Constable to " mind the old 'un." 

 "Yes, damn it! " rejoined Constable, "he fairly diddled 

 me with his push and screw." 



The reader has already been informed that our hero 

 began his career as a jockey in 1846, and closed it, so 

 far as public riding was concerned, after the St. Leger 

 of 1892, in which event he steered the late Baron 

 Hirsch's Watercress into third place behind La Fleche, 

 that being his last public mount. John Singleton, a 



