490 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



to walk the horse home at once. That incident would 

 occur about 1848." 



" You speak about John Osborne's riding of Lord 

 Clifden in the St. Leger?" 



" Upon my word, that was a most remarkable race 

 of ' Johnnie's.' I thought Lord Clifden was clean out 

 of it. He got badly away at first, and he was certainly 

 a hundred yards behind everything at one time. The 

 next day Lord St. Vincent came to me and said, ' Judge, 

 I'm going to give John Osborne a present for riding my 

 horse.' He gave me the money. I think it was 500 ; 

 perhaps it might have been more. I never counted it. 

 Lord St. Vincent didn't seem to care about carrying 

 the money about with him, and I was in the same way 

 of thinking, for it was very rough on racecourses then, 

 much rougher than now. At all events, John got the 

 money all right." 



"About Apology's St. Leger? " 

 '' Yes, upon my word, there was a mighty sensation 

 in Apology's year when John rode her. She belonged, 

 as you know, to old Mr. King, who was a clergyman, 

 and a nice old gentleman he was too. He raced under 

 the name of Mr. ' Launde.' It was a registered name. 

 Apology was very lame. It was said she pulled up 

 very lame, but whether she did or whether she did not, 

 I can't take it upon myself to say exactly. I rather 

 fancy old John Osborne did not want to run her. 

 However, she won very cleverly in young John's hands, 

 and there was tremendous excitement afterwards. I 

 can go back a long time in racing, for, you see, I was 

 forty-two years officially connected with it. I com- 

 menced in '4:4, and left off in '85. My first appointment 

 as judge was at Catterick in '44. I had previously 

 judged that year at Ripon, but I was not appointed 



