36 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



"Amongst the Ashgill inmates in 1841 was 

 Auckland, of whom an idea was entertained 

 that he had a chance of winning the Derby, but 

 his leg gave way before the race after he got 

 to the scene of action. William de Fortibus was 

 another that paid his way. It was in 1841 that 

 Maria Day came to Ashgill. She had been 

 bought by my father at Mr. Nowell's sale at 

 Underley, Westmorland, that gentleman having 

 bred her. She came in November, and to test 

 the mettle of the newcomer all the yearlings were 

 roughed up to ascertain if they could ' go/ 

 Maria Day was well tried with a mare called 

 Ten Pound Note, and from what she told my 

 father he advised the Marquis of Westminster 

 to buy her. She wintered at Ashgill, the 

 Marquis getting her for 100 guineas. Amongst 

 her performances as a two-year-old in 1842 were 

 a double win at Catterick and a third in the 

 Doncaster Champagne. She succumbed after a 

 desperate race in the Two-Year-Old Stakes at 

 Doncaster by a short lead, it being recorded in 

 the papers at the time that it was ' the largest 

 and severest race ever seen at Doncaster.' In 

 fact, it is so chronicled in Robert Johnson's 

 and Mr. Michael Benson's old Calendars, in 

 which descriptions of the races were given as 

 well as the returns, it being Mr. Johnson's 

 custom to cut out the reports from Bell's Life 

 and fix them to each race. The Weatherbys 

 of the present day might well imitate the example 

 of the old-time chronicler. 



" The Marquis of Westminster's connection 

 lasted twelve months only, and John Osborne 



