AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 393 



of age, and gained lasting renown at twenty, when he 

 rode Blair Athol to victory in the Derby and St. Leger. 

 Had he lived a more temperate, thrifty life, he would 

 have died a wealthy man ; as it was, a subscription had 

 to be made to bury him. Just as was the case with 

 Bill Scott, he loved low life in the cosy little " pubs " 

 of Yorkshire, but with this difference, that Scott in- 

 vested his winnings in collieries, and died worth 

 100,000. Had Snowden lived at Newmarket, he 

 might yet have been an ornament in his profession, for 

 it is probable that he would have got more employment, 

 and been more under restraint. He rode many 

 brilliant finishes, but without doubt he threw away the 

 Cambridgeshire on Bendigo in the most culpable 

 manner, and it was owing to his besetting vice that 

 he missed the mount on Doncaster when that horse won 

 the St. Leger. The encounters in the saddle between 

 him and John Osborne were almost innumerable, and 

 it was a sight worthy of the gods to behold the two 

 northern luminaries coming out in combat up the 

 straight together for a battle royal home. For many 

 years Snowden was identified with the " Aske spots " 

 of Lord Zetland, who always engaged him whenever he 

 could ride the weight. The writer paid Jim's last hotel 

 bill at Kelso, shortly before he died, the once brilliant 

 jockey being then penniless, and unfurnished with his 

 train fare home. He was born at Flixton, Yorkshire, 

 in 1843, and died in his forty-sixth year at Doncaster, 

 on Wednesday, 8th February, 1889. 



His career extended over a long period of years. 

 Butterfly gave him his first Oaks in 1860, and he won 

 the same race twenty years later on Mr. Charles 

 Perkins's Jenny Howlet, who beat her more fancied 

 stable companion, Mr. J. B. Cookson's Bonnie Marden. 



