AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 113 



dealing gives a passing glimpse of old John Osborne and 

 Tom Chaloner, who was one of his favourite jockeys. 

 The sketch conveys an idea of the old trainer's confi- 

 dence and regard for his " feather-weights/' several of 

 whom, reared in the Ashgill stable, rose to eminence. 

 That " Old John," now in the plenitude of his scope 

 the period is the early " sixties " had done, and was 

 doing, yeoman service as a breeder, trainer, and owner 

 in the making of jockeys, the chronicler (in Hatty's 

 Magazine) indicates as follows: 



"As Turkey imports her brides from Circassia on 

 account of their natural beauty, so John Osborne 

 colonizes his ' feathers ' from Manchester by reason of 

 their sharpness, he having rightly observed that the 

 leaders of the betting ring have all come from that city. 

 Chaloner and Grimshaw are excellent specimens of the 

 Manchester school, whose subjects as soon as they are 

 out of their egg-shells are taught to shift for themselves. 

 Chaloner is to John Osborne what Adams is to William 

 Day, viz., his pilot in handicap nurseries and consolation 

 scrambles, and, by the retainers he has from other owners 

 for him, he gets to know many horses' ' forms,' and 

 profits by it. In the North people are as fond of back- 

 ing his mount as they are that of Fordham in the South, 

 and a better jockey of his years never scaled. Of quiet 

 and domestic habits, his great taste is for natural history, 

 and his collection of pets a short time back resembled 

 the Zoological Gardens on a small scale. By his industry 

 and ability he has realised large sums for ' Old John,' 

 besides for himself ; and to his credit be it said, his first 

 thoughts were for his parents, whom he put into a 

 public-house and saw them do well. Grimshaw, his 

 companion, is one of the most old-fashioned boys we 

 ever came across. Stronger than the majority of the 

 i 



