AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 



CHAPTER II 



" Time hath, my Lord, a wallet on his back wherein he 

 carries alms for Oblivion." 



BRECONGILL, the abode of John Osborne (the second 

 Christian name of Howe is now omitted for brevity's 

 sake), is an unpretentious, old-fashioned two-storeyed 

 house, substantially built of stone, with the stables, 

 whence " Master John " has sent many a good horse, 

 and the stone-paved courtyard forming the immediately 

 adjoining premises. Ashgill, a similar type of residence 

 with its range of stables in propinquity, is about a 

 quarter of a mile distant from Brecongill. For many 

 a long year Ashgill was the paternal household of the 

 Osbornes. Almost within voice call of the two places, 

 nestling under the tree-clad hill, lies Spigot Lodge, 

 another famous home of the thoroughbred, sacred to 

 the memory of The Flying Dutchman, who was trained 

 there by John Fobert. The hardly less celebrated 

 Tupgill, long the residence of Tom Dawson, and 

 Thorngill where he died, are also within easy hail of 

 Ashgill and Brecongill. At the period of writing, 

 Ashgill, then tenanted by Seth Chandley, the North- 

 country jockey, had lost the halo of its glory, for the 

 stalls . which once had sheltered a Saunterer, an 

 Apology, and a Lily Agnes, the last-named destined 



