478 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



a Stayer in the first degree. We are not aware of a 

 solitary jockey being alive at the present day that was 

 contemporary with him at the outset of his career. Of 

 course, there are men yet to the fore, like John Kent, 

 old Tom Jennings, and others, who are his elders by 

 years as trainers, but not as professional horsemen. The 

 Dawsons never aspired to shine in the pigskin, rather 

 devoting the whole of their talents to the art of 

 training, of which they are most brilliant ornaments. 

 Fred Bates, who had a brief career as a jockey, and 

 who for years was Master John's neighbour at Tupgill, 

 began riding in the early " fifties," and it is probable he 

 is the only hving notable ex-jockey, along with 

 Custance, who was actively pursuing his profession in 

 the same early epoch. 



Attempting to analyse John Osborne's attributes 

 and characteristics as a horseman, who will ever be 

 considered as having been in the front rank when 

 there were giants in the land, the task will be assisted 

 by comparisons with some of his contemporary rivals. 

 And here a digression may be excused by sketching the 

 social position of the trainer and jockey in the present 

 luxurious age to that they held forty or fifty years ago. 

 With the vast increase of racing of modern times — a 

 sign of the increased wealth of the country, as well as 

 of our sporting and commercial instincts — there has 

 been a proportionate increase in the number of the 

 jockeys. John Osborne began riding just when 

 the genius of Stephenson, the Northumbrian "pit 

 laddie," was making itseK felt like a meteor in the 

 development of the railway system. The old school 

 of trainers, and jockeys too, had to walk with their 

 horses hundreds of miles during the season. It is on 

 record that Ahce Hawthorn, after winning at Epsom, 

 was travelled by road to Newcastle-on-Tyne to meet 



