474 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



CHAPTER XXIV 



" The sere and yellow leaf when years are advancing, 

 The blossoms and summer are scattered and gone." 



RICHMOND, alas! is now one of the old-fashioned 



meetings numbered with the things that were, having 



succumbed to the exactions of the Jockey Club for 



increased value of stakes, easily provided by the new 



order of things at our modern enclosure meetings, which 



reap a rich revenue from the " gates." Many equine 



giants of the past have strode out over the gradients of 



Richmond Moor course, which, with its " against the 



collar" rise for five furlongs, soon found out those of 



weak pipes. Much to be regretted is the extinction of 



the venerable and historical meetings of the Richmond 



and Northallerton class. Some good local sportsmen 



struggled on for years to keep them in the calendar, 



but it was found, owing to the sparse population and 



the thinness of the attendance, the money could not be 



gathered to make ends meet. Old Jim Watson, and 



his brother Jacob, trained of late years some useful 



horses at Richmond, the best Jim probably ever had 



being Spennithorne, who won a Northumberland Plate 



and a Goodwood Stakes the same year. Old Jim, who 



delighted to crack about rare old Bee's-wing and 



her playful pranks as a yearling in the days when, as 



a lad, he looked after her, died ripe in years 



