404 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



Newmarket. The Club Subscription Boom, in the 

 September of 1892, was the scene of the formal 

 presentation, a number of representative sportsmen 

 supporting Mr. Houldsworth, the Senior Steward 

 of the Jockey Club, who presided at the pleasant 

 function. Every seat in the brilliantly-lit room, 

 lent by the club for the occasion, was taken before 

 the proceedings were due to begin. The hero of 

 the hour, accompanied by Mrs. Osborne, was amongst 

 the last to arrive, being welcomed by a smiling sea of 

 faces as he took his seat at the upper left-hand side of 

 the shining mahogany. "Mr. John," who only once 

 before in his life, viz., at poor Jim Snowden's wedding, 

 had been known to sacrifice to the Graces so far as to 

 mount a collar, was true to his tenets, but met the 

 exigencies of the occasion by an immaculate white scarf, 

 over which his eye glanced cheerily round, although it 

 was evident that the veteran had nerved himself for this 

 happy, though to him trying, occasion. It was a 

 thoroughly representative gathering of sportsmen that 

 surrounded the hero of a hundred famous struggles in 

 the pigskin, as, in addition to the Senior Steward, who 

 was supported by Lord Durham and Sir Henry Hawkins, 

 the following ladies and gentlemen were present: 

 Mrs. J. Osborne, Mrs. T. Chaloner, and Mrs. Ridley 

 (sisters of the veteran horseman), and Mrs. Tompkins, 

 Sir Charles Russell, Sir Edward Lawson, Sir John Dixon 

 Poynder, and the right hon. James Lowther, who 

 came in just at the close of proceedings. The room was 

 crowded by well-known turfites, amongst whom we 

 noticed Messrs. C. Matthews, E. Tattersall, J. Comyns 

 Cole, A. Gilbey, G. Lambert, T. Conns, W. J. Innes, 

 J. W. Smith, R. H. Fry, W. Peach, J. Percival, J. 

 Atherton, J. Millard, W. Millard, J. Christie, J. DobeU, 



