278 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



CHAPTER XVI 



" So 'mid the jarring and discordant host 

 He kept unstained his purity of soul, 

 Serenely stern ; Honour his starting post, 

 Justice his course, and Probity his goal." 



EMBARKING upon the " eighties," we find John Osborne 

 making a good start in the first year of that 

 decade by riding his favourite mount, Chippendale, to 

 the desired goal in the Great Metropolitan Stakes at 

 Epsom, the son of Rococo and Adversity starting a 

 6 to 4 favourite. The aged Omega, owned by Mr. 

 Robert Osborne, was also winning races for the stable. 

 On his own horse, The Poacher, John was beaten a 

 neck by Lord Zetland's Hardrada in the Doncaster 

 Welter Handicap, but effected a surprise at Manchester 

 when, riding the despised Billycock, he beat Archer on 

 the Duke of Westminster's Eyebright. The happily- 

 named Novice, by Macaroni out of Tyro, was a three- 

 year-old in '80. She failed to realise expectations when 

 John rode her in the Oaks, won by Mr. Charles Perkins's 

 Jenny Howlet, who beat a much more fancied stable 

 companion in Bonnie Marden, Jim Snowden landing a 

 33 to 1 chance that afternoon for the Highfield con- 

 nections, who, however, were not large winners over her 



