180 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



" One after one the lords of time advance 

 Here Stanley meets how Stanley scorns the glance ! * 

 The brilliant chief, irregularly great, 

 Frank, haughty, rash the Rupert of debate ; 

 Nor gout, nor toil, his freshness can destroy, 

 And Time still leaves all Eton in the boy ; 

 First in the class, and keenest in the ring, 

 He saps like Gladstone, and he fights like Spring ; 

 Ev'n at the feast his pluck pervades the board, 

 And dauntless game-cocks symbolise their lord. 

 Lo, where atilt at friend if barr'd from foe 

 He scours the ground, and volunteers the blow, 

 And, tired with contest over Dan and Snob, 

 Plants a sly bruiser on the nose of Bob ; f 

 Decorous Bob, too friendly to reprove, 

 Suggests fresh fighting in the next remove, 

 And prompts his chum, in hopes the vein to cool, 

 To the prim benches of the Upper School : 



Yet who not listens, with delighted smile, 

 To the pure Saxon of that silver style ; 

 In the clear style a heart as clear is seen, 

 Prompt to the rash revolting to the mean." 



It was the ambition of his life, never to be realised, to 

 win the Derby, a race which was named in compliment 

 to his grandfather, the twelfth Earl, but the hopes so 

 dearly entertained were never destined to be realised, 

 it being a case of " so near and yet so far " when 

 Toxophilite ran second for it in 1858. He won the Oaks 

 in 1851 with the roaring Iris, and the Two Thousand 

 Guineas with Fazzoletto, the One Thousand with 

 Canezou and Sagitta, the Goodwood and Doncaster 

 Cups with Canezou. Several handicaps and 

 innumerable Produce stakes fell to his lot. The most 

 successful brood mare he ever possessed was probably 

 Miss Bowe, one of old John Osborne's first mares, who 

 produced him Iris, Longbow, Boiardo, De Clare, 

 Strongbow, Tom Bowline, and a few others of lesser 

 note. The sisters Escalade and Meeanee were not so 



* The glance of O'Connell. t The late Sir Robert Peel. 



