132 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



I'Anson's reign, less brief was that of old John Osborne, 

 who got charge of the team at Ashgill. John Scott at 

 Whitewall then had his tenure of office, and it was a 

 sad blow to the great " Wizard of the North," not long 

 before his death, when Lord Glasgow deserted him 

 the greatest and most wonderful trainer, perhaps, the 

 world ever knew. 



Lord Glasgow's penchant for matching led him 

 into encounters with Admiral Rous, Sir Robert 

 Peel, Sir Joseph Hawley, and his indifference to 

 defeat, which was oftener his fate than victory, was 

 phenomenal. The only time he ever flinched under 

 adversity, it is said, was in the Houghton week in '57, 

 when "he sighed over the fact of having lost three 

 thousand five hundred pounds in different engagements 

 during the week and declined further overtures. The 

 next morning 'Fortune tired, as it were, of persecuting 

 him, veered round, whereupon all his previous resolu- 

 tions were scattered to the winds and he embarked with 

 a series of fresh ones for the Spring meetings." Old 

 Middlehamites speak to this day of his affection for 

 his horses, his preference for shooting them to giving 

 them away lest they met with ill-treatment. Beneath 

 the exterior of rugged eccentricity was a deep vein of 

 tenderness and sympathy for his fellow-creatures. 

 Indeed, of him it might be truly said he had a tear for 

 pity and a hand open as the day for melting charity. 

 The above outline is excerpted from Baily's Magazine. 



Dr. Shorthouse paid a fine tribute to him in his 

 Sporting Times obituary notice. " Lord Glasgow," he 

 wrote, " was very simple in his habits, and was always 

 meanly and coldly clad. He had been brought up to 

 the sea, and the ' Spartan discipline ' seemed to have 

 rooted well in his system. When young he fell from 



