AND TIMES OF JOHN OSBORNE 475 



at Belleisle, and left a family of sons, notable 

 amongst whom are James and John, both doing 

 well, and following in their father's footsteps as 

 successful trainers of the thoroughbred. Many will 

 recall the hospitable spread which the veteran was wont 

 to lay out at Belleisle every Richmond Meeting, the 

 worthy old fellow always preferring his glass of port as 

 the wine worthy of the gods. It was a toilsome pull up 

 the steep from the town to the course. Belleisle was 

 the half-way house, and grateful on a broiling 

 hot day was the wayfarer who, like Falstaff, had 

 " larded the lean earth " in his struggle up the hill of 

 Sisyphus, to be regaled with a glass of " cool sparkling," 

 supplemented by a feed of good honest beef or York 

 ham, with toothsome trimmings thrown in. 



The cheery voice of the old man and its rugged 

 Northumbrian burr he was a native of Newcastle-on- 

 Tyne was indeed music to the Tynesider. Peace to 

 his shade! A death-blow to Richmond was struck 

 when the present Lord Zetland ceased to have his horses 

 trained at Aske, the late John Coates, who afterwards 

 was associated with that splendid but unlucky owner 

 Marquis de Talon, at Sedgefield, being in charge. Not 

 much good fortune followed his lordship's change from 

 Yorkshire to Newmarket, and it is with regret that one 

 chronicles the fact that a hereditary owner like him 

 and Lord Londonderry no more train in the North; 

 nay, in fact, that they have practically retired from the 

 Turf. Of recent years old training grounds like 

 Richmond, Beverley, Hambleton, Pontefract, and 

 Middleham, the last-named place in particular, have 

 suffered vastly from so many patrician owners sending 

 their horses to Newmarket rather than keeping them in 

 the North, as was done in the palmy days of John Scott, 



