394 



ment after Scott's death, he settled, for life, £I00 a year each upon 

 James Perrin and John Peart, Scott's secretary. 



Scott married a second time, in about 1845, but left no issue. 



I now come to treat with 



Matthew Dawson. 



He is the son of George Dawson who over a century ago trained 

 horses at GulUne, on the Firth of Forth, where, on January 9, 1820^ 

 Mat was born. Thus he was younger by a little over twenty-five 

 years than John Scott, but was contemporaneous with him as a trainer 

 for just thirty-one years. 



He had seventeen brothers and sisters, most of whom died young. 

 Of those who grew up none took to training except his elder brothers, 

 Tom, and Joe, who died some years ago, and his younger brother 

 John, who, still well and hearty, now presides over the AVarren House 

 establishment. 



Like most others of his craft, from earliest boyhood Mat has been 

 connected with the stable, and when only twenty years of age h& 

 began, in 1840, to train racehorses. 



He started as private trainer to Lord Eglinton, and then for four 

 years he trained publicly at Gullane. After that he resumed the 

 private business, and until 1857 he trained for Lord John Scott alone — 

 both at Newmarket and Ilsley. Hobbie Noble, the great favourite for 

 the Derby of 1852, was under Mat's charge when a two-year-old, bat, 

 acting on his advice. Lord John sold him to Mr. James Merry some 

 time before the race. The price paid was 6,500 guineas, the highest 

 figure a horse ever fetched up to that time. As history records^ 

 Hobbie could only get third to Daniel O'Rourke and Stockwell, and 

 lost Merry a vast sum of money. Had he won, the feat of breaking 

 the Ping, as I said elsewhere, would have been pretty nearly accom-^ 

 plished by the great Ironmaster. 



In 1857 Lord John Scott, suffering from ill health, was obliged to give 

 up racing, and, on the advice of Mat Dawson, Mr. Merry bought his 

 entire stud, from Windhound down to the youngest foal. With the 

 horses went to Russley their trainer, and from that time, as with Scott 

 and Petre at Whitewall, dates the celebrity of both men. 



Merry's horses ran into places for the Derby four years out of the five- 

 between 1860 and 1864. Thormanby, whom Mat purchased for Merry 

 when a yearling, won in 1860, a year of exceptionally good horses, and 

 Dundee would have done so the year after but for breaking down at 

 the Road ; as it was he lost it from Kettledrum by only a length. I 

 must, however, refer my readers to the Calendar for the extraordinary 

 record which was run up for the plunging Scotchman. 



In 1866 Mat Dawson returned to Newmarket and established himself 

 and his horses at Heath House. 



To enumerate his achievements as a trainer is impossible for me ; 

 sufiice to say that his success followed him to Newmarket, and has- 



