AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 331 



CHAPTER XVIII 



"Fond Memory's touch recalls each faded hue, 

 And all the Past comes rushing into view." 



ONE of the old-fashioned Yorkshire Meetings is Thirsk, 

 \vhich has survived the sapient legislation of the Jockey 

 Club that exacts from a small population 100 a race, 

 heedless of the practical impossibility of raising the 

 wherewithal. From this cause Richmond, North- 

 allerton, Durham, and other kindred modest fixtures 

 have been wiped off the slate. Still, Thirsk flourishes 

 not by the Jockey Club's favours, but rather from a 

 new enlightened and spirited management directed by 

 a handful of influential and loyal sportsmen. At the 

 Thirsk Spring Meeting, celebrated on 23rd April, 1884, 

 a somewhat humorous incident occurred. Mr. T. S. 

 Dawson, a worthy and much-respected son of Tom 

 Dawson, was then clerk of the course, his death shortly 

 afterwards, when in the prime of his manhood, 

 creating the profoundest regret in North-country racing 

 circles. He instituted a new race in the Great York- 

 shire Foal Stakes this year, and John Osborne rode 

 Mint Drop second for it to Fred Archer on Mr. Mathew 

 Dawson's Laverock by Skylark Citronella. Archer, 

 then in the zenith of his greatness, had never ridden at 

 Thirsk before, and his advent amongst the simple 



