28 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



wood Cup, shortly after which he was sold to the 

 Americans for 4000 guineas, Mr. Tattersall at the sale 

 describing the plucky purchasers as ' noble buyers.' 



" After Priam's Derby victory the star of the Chifneys 

 descended, and their stud was soon brought to the 

 hammer. Once after 1834 was the Chifney ' green and 

 black ' seen at Epsom, and this was when their nephew, 

 the accomplished and honest Frank Butler, had his 

 maiden mount in 1836 on The Athenian. Finally, Sam 

 Chifney retired from the saddle in 1844. He saw his 

 last Derby when ' The Flying West ' passed the post 

 in 1853, and died, after a month's illness, in August, 

 1854, at Brighton, where he is buried in Hove 

 Churchyard." 



It will be gathered from the foregoing borrowed 

 sketch that John Osborne, senior, from the period he 

 was associated with Lord Chesterfield at Bretby, up to 

 1837, had lived in stirring times. Yet all his knowledge 

 and lore of those days were never committed to paper 

 in after life, and now, upwards of sixty years afterwards, 

 the compiler has to depend upon the most trivial data 

 supplied from sources outside the battle. 



On severing his connection with Lord Chesterfield, 

 John Osborne, senior he had then been married a few 

 years, his third son, our John Osborne, becoming a 

 hostage to fortune on 7th January, 1833, as already 

 mentioned aspired to wider scope for the development 

 of his talents as a trainer and breeder of the high- 

 mettled racer. Up to the end of 1836, Ashgill, the 

 destined future quarters of the family, had been 

 tenanted by George Gates, who trained Lottery there 

 for Mr. Wliittaker and Longwaist for Mr. Nowell. His 

 son, George Oates, who died a few years ago, followed 

 in his footsteps as a trainer at Richmond, Yorkshire. 



