296 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



class. Ennui, the dam of Saunterer, was never any- 

 thing grand, and certainly a long way off being so good 

 as her son, who mated in so happily with the Bird- 

 catcher strains. Rebecca, the tap root of some of our 

 best blood, and who was the dam of Alice Hawthorn, 

 Fair Helen, Annandale, The Provost, etc., never once 

 had her name enrolled amongst the fliers of her day in 

 a distinguishing way. Pocahontas ran until she was 

 six years old in all sorts of company and failed to win 

 a race. Hybla, the dam of Derby and Oaks winners, 

 never ran at all on the Turf; and Ferina, who was 

 twenty-two years old when she threw Pretender, failed 

 to win a single race. 



No startling amount of success attended the Ashgill 

 and Brecongill horses in the season of '81. Lartington, 

 however, created a surprise by winning the Cumberland 

 Plate, which twelve months before had been carried 

 off by Victor Emanuel. " Mr. John " still enjoyed the 

 patronage of Mr. Robert Jardine, and rode the " blue 

 and silver braid " successfully on Teviotdale and 

 Ishmael, the latter winning the Great Yorkshire Stakes. 

 Peppermint, by Camballo out of Mintdrop, bred and 

 owned by our hero, was a two-year-old this season, 

 running a dead heat on his first appearance, and gaining 

 another bracket at Pontefract out of his four essays. 

 At Manchester Peppermint was unplaced to Dutch 

 Oven for the Great Lancashire Yearly Stakes; but, 

 as we shall hereafter see, the sturdy little son of 

 Camballo created a name for himself the following year 

 by his triumph over Lord Falmouth's flying two-year- 

 old, Dutch Oven, destined to become a sensational St. 

 Leger heroine. Another of John's successful mounts 

 was that on Privateer in the Great Northern Handicap, 

 with Billy Platt steering the Ashgill-trained Novice 



