ASHGILL 



OR 



THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 



CHAPTER I 



" High placed Middlcham, marked with martial scars, 

 The fatal records of internal wars ; 

 A Neville's pile where Cromwell's rage we trace 

 In wondrous grandeur and expiring grace." 



IT was on a dull, cold, cheerless day in the late 

 December of 1896 that the chronicler of these records 

 paid a flying visit to Middleham in quest of John 

 Osborne, jockey, owner, trainer, and breeder of 

 thoroughbreds. The task, or rather duty, of gaining 

 data which might form a permanent and trustworthy 

 account of John Osborne's achievements during a 

 militant connection with the Turf, extending upwards 

 of half a century, had long been contemplated. 



On repeated occasions " Mr. John," an epithet which 

 attaches to him in the closing years of the nineteenth 

 century, had been approached and asked to " extend " 

 himself. But in his innate modesty he declined to 

 expose his " form," retaliating by suggesting, " Why not 

 write a * Life ' of Matthew Dawson or old Mr. 

 Jennings ? " 



