114 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



'feathers,' with rare hands, and a knowledge of pace 

 acquired by extensive practice, he is invaluable to an 

 owner, and scarcely are the weights published for a great 

 handicap ere negotiations are entered into for him. But 

 ' Old John ' is as hard in bargaining for him as Barnum 

 is for a curiosity, and it took two days for Sir Joseph 

 Hawley to conclude the treaty with him for Beacon in 

 the Cambridgeshire of the year before last. Dressed in 

 his long greatcoat, which comes nearly down to his 

 spurs, and his cap pulled over his eyes, old John Osborne 

 gives one, with his stolid countenance, the idea of an 

 old whipper-in razeed; and the ensemble is heightened 

 by his curt mode of speaking. Like Chaloner, ' Old 

 John' conducts himself in a manner that will always 

 ensure him employers." 



