AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 115 



CHAPTER VIII 



"0! who will o'er the downs so free!" 



THE reader may be interested in a survey of the 

 training grounds and the trainers when the " sixties " 

 were entered. At Middleham, which had been glorified 

 by The Flying Dutchman in the preceding decade, John 

 Fobert directed a big string at Spigot Lodge. The 

 Dawsons, father and son, were enjoying liberal 

 patronage the one training for Lord Glasgow, and the 

 other for John Jackson, then rising to his zenith as 

 the " Emperor of the Ring," and for whom Tim Whiffler 

 was doing yeoman service. The Osbornes, as we have 

 seen, were flourishing, holding under their control many 

 horses, " Old John " bringing before the public more 

 good " feather-weights " than any other of his profession 

 in the kingdom. A little further north of Middleham, 

 Geo. Abdale, Jim Watson, Gill, and Winteringham held 

 court at Richmond, which had already been made 

 famous by the doughty deeds of Voltigeur, Fandango, 

 and Vedette, bearing the " Aske spots " of the Earl of 

 Zetland. But the mightiest training citadel of the 

 " county of broad acres " was Malton and Pigburn, 

 where John Scott, with the grace of a gentleman and 

 the dignity of a prince, held patrician levees of his 

 patrons, including Mr. Bowes (for whom he trained four 



