390 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



CHAPTER XX 



"To talk with him of other days 

 Seemed converse with old Time." 



ONE of Osborne's most frequent rivals in the saddle was 

 Jim Snowden. Of gipsy descent, his education 

 was uninfluenced by School Board precepts the 

 three R's never troubling his wayward mind, whose 

 chief fixed purpose was riding horses, as indeed was 

 the case with his brother Luke, who was also a 

 jockey of some note, though never placed in the 

 front rank. The Minster town of Beverley was 

 the scene of Jim Snowden's first introduction 

 to racing life. Here he was connected in a small 

 way with a dealer and trainer. The story is told 

 how the lad, having been furnished with a racing 

 saddle, a pair of riding boots and breeches, was sent 

 to Doncaster in the Leger week on the errand of getting 

 a chance mount. Not so well known then to the gate- 

 keeper as he was in after life on every racecourse in 

 England, he was refused admittance to the paddock by 

 the janitor. Not to be frustrated in his object, he got 

 a " leg up " from the wrong side of the paddock, and 

 was surreptitiously dropped into the charmed circle. 



His talents in the pigskin were quickly seen, and his 

 rise to note was rapid. To him riding a horse was- 



