338 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



Archer on both occasions by a head, and proved quite 

 his equal. On the first day of this Liverpool Meeting 

 Goodway won the Molyneux Cup on the Ashgill horse, 

 Craig Royston, after a tremendous finish with the late 

 George Barrett on Brayley. "Brother William's" 

 Gentle Ida won the Windermere Plate, and, brought 

 out later in the afternoon, with John up, she was only 

 beaten a head by Lord Durham's Placidor, on whom 

 Jim Snowden rode one of his most resolute finishes. 

 It was these displays that led up to the significant 

 ovation of the Northerners, which followed Osborne's 

 triumph over Archer and the Southrons. 



Still harping on the doings of '84, we find it was a 

 season of several hairbreadth finishes on the part of 

 the old-time jockey. On his brother's mare, Nightcap, 

 by Mask out of Mrs. Knight, he repeated his St. Gatien 

 bracket of the year before in the John o' Gaunt Plate 

 at Manchester, and on Londonderry, a sturdy little 

 horse belonging to " Brother Robert," he won the 

 Golborne Park Stakes at Newton, and other little 

 plums. With Mr. Stevenson's Otium he snatched a 

 race by a neck from Jim Snowden at Newcastle Summer 

 Meeting, coming at the last moment with one of his 

 most brilliant rushes; Stone Clink, one of Mr. Vyner's 

 also, taking a "Biennial" at the same meeting from 

 Lord Durham's Redskin by a short head, Mr. Vyner's 

 mare revealing a partiality on this occasion for the 

 Gosforth track, which she, in her after career, con- 

 firmed by winning the Northumberland Plate, following 

 that up the same season by capturing the Cesarewitch. 

 A good, game, handy sort was Stone Clink, who also 

 proved herself useful at the stud. It was at this same 

 Gosforth Park Meeting of '84 that the Duke of 

 Portland, who owns a large estate not far from the 



