412 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



or St. Leger has since taken place in which the universally popular 

 and, what is still better, the universally respected "Johnnie Osborne" 

 has not taken part, and now, at the end of nearly fifty years in the 

 saddle, he is about to retire from the active pursuit of his profession as 

 a jockey. He was born at Bretby, near Burton-on-Trent then the seat 

 of Lord Chesterfield the Magnificent on January 7, 1833. In that 

 year his father was private trainer to Lord Chesterfield, and five years 

 were yet to elapse before he transferred himself and his household from 

 Derbyshire to Middleham, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. It was a 

 place famous for trainers. There was James Croft ; there was Mangles 

 better known by the Yorkshire sobriquet of "Crying Jacky," as he 

 could seldom win or lose a big race without shedding tears ; there were 

 Tom Dawson, Matthew, Joseph, and John Dawson, all of whom learnt 

 their business there ; there was Fobe'rt who trained Van Tromp and 

 The Flying Dutchman ; and last, but not least, of the goodly company 

 came old John Osborne and his two sons, John and Robert. 



It will surprise no one to hear that it is the intention of a committee 

 of noblemen and gentlemen, comprising among them many of the most 

 distinguished patrons of the Turf, to present to "Johnnie Osborne" we 

 give him the name by which he is known far and wide such a testi- 

 monial as will be worthy of his acceptance at the end of his long and 

 most honourable career. His first mount was in 1846, when he rode 

 Miss Castling in the Wilton Cup at Radcliffe, and he has been riding 

 ever since. So completely has he outlived all his earlier contemporaries 

 in the saddle that the very names of some of the least known of them 

 have passed out of the public mind. When we mention that George 

 Fordham, who died in 1887, aged fifty years, was born on September 24, 

 1837 about four and three-quarter years after John Osborne, junior 

 it will readily be understood how rapid and destructive are the strokes 

 of Time. 



The names of the proposed testimonial committee, to which further 

 additions will undoubtedly be made in abundance, is more than sufficient 

 to guarantee the success of a movement which will appeal not only to 

 the hearts of the sport-loving English people, but to those beyond the 

 sea who, in their devotion to the " sport of kings," are more English 

 than ourselves. When it is remembered that the high-minded, courage- 

 ous, and modest-mannered jockey whose name heads this column has 

 been riding, "egg and bird," for nearly half a century; that in exactly 

 fourteen months from this day he will be sixty years old ; that no man 

 has had more accidents and mishaps as a rider of races ; that he has 



