The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-06-06 00:00:00

THE DERBY.

The following extract is from an interesting sketch
in the Erening Standard of Wednesday, meler the
head of "The Mad and Rail," to the Derby—

The storm which the oppressive heat of yesterday por-
tended burst during the might, anti it was with no small
amount of consternation that the hundreds of thousands of
those who had made arrangements to witness to-day's struggle
for the Inlne rib:in:l of the turf, awoke this morning to witness
a downpour of rain that would have done credit to the
trinities. Visitors to the Derby are early risen, at least on
Derby Day ; and those who had made up their minds to wit-
ness, and unconsciously form part of, the ninety-fourth Eng-
lish Conical, hastened to the horrible conclusion that
because the rain was raining everywhere over the
metropolis at four, live, and six o'clock, it must of neces-
sity so continue to rain during tine rest of the day. Dismal
and dreary enough in all truth dill the prospect look at
these early ltours of the menthe., and nail were the forbo d-
ings as to the fate of the parties whose members had in heed-
less moments bound themselves by solemn compact to
proceed to Epsom by road. The hampers, carefully
packed with all the delicacies of the season, and with
those delicaces which snit all seasons, were renown-
bered with dismay, whilst the summer clothing
and blue and green dust veils were regarded as so
many vanities, to be cast aside for twelve months
to come. Fate, however, was not so harsh as utterly to dash
all those hopes which had been nurtured so fondly and so
long, for by seven o'clock the dark clouds had rolled sulkily
away before the increasing power of the sun, so that at
breakfast time they were shattered into fragments, mid every
cloudlet showed the fringe of its silver lining Then indeed
the pilgrims, (as it pleaseth certain dignitaries to call pleasure
parties now-a-days) took heart of grace, and prophesied a day
' the more delightful for the storm with which it had been
usheredin the old tune ofjollity wasrevived,andicheerfulness
and good cheer once more reigned supreme. Hint there were
those whom no sort of weather could put out of sorts—men,
and for the matter of that women, whose stern determina-
tion to lie present on Epsom Downs to-day was not to be
turned aside by a deluge ; people to whom a visit to the
Derby is a rich inheritance which has been howled down to
them from their forefathers--a sort of ceremolll. which they
feel bound to observe. These people, for the most part
seated on low-backed cars, drawn ny donkeys of all sorts of
conditions in life, started from their east end homes long
before the rain had ceased, and were fair on their way
before the sun began to cheer them with his smiles. But
It was not until close upon nine o'clock that the main
route began to assume that confused and confusing, elo-
pe:trance which from the Elephant and Castle "to Epsom
It wears on Derby Day every year. Then, indeed,
and from that hour until past noon, the senses were bewil-
dered witlo the noises and the sights along this wonderful
thoroughfare. Every vehicle that rolls on wheels was there
to lie found : the handsome drag, with its gay and lair occu-
pants, drawn by four spankers, and driven by an amateur
whip wearing a green or blue veil-- evidently for the sake of
ornament this morning. Sometimes the amateur whip ex-
hibits a nervous uncertainty as to his proper place in the wild
procession, and on such occasions the chances are that his
confusion In made worse confounded by the compliments
loestowed upon him by tile drivers of other vehicles whose
course he impedes. Numerous are the carriages and pain
that roll along, each hearing its burden of happy ones, and
supporting between its wheels or in the dickey behind a cer-
tain hamper chock full of hilarity for tine mourn to conic ere
and after the great race has been ruin and won. Numberless
, are the Hansom cabs, the drivers of which have gaily
! bedecked their loorses' heads with blue rosettes and their
' whips with blue ribbon. And as to the costermongers. why
! they howl along behind their daiutily-stepping little steeds
' with a recklessness that every moment threatens them anti
! all their household gods and goddesses with destruction ; but
! they appear to have charmed lives—they and their donkeys. for
I they came out of each dillictulty unscathed and triumphant.
The whole tide of life seems to be settling the one way
along this road to-day ; and as it flows on and on the river
becomes swodlen snore and more by each tributary stream
which tlows into it, until by the tiitie Sutton is passed and
Epsom reaehed it has become one turbulent and roaring
cataract. At Ketinington-park, and again at Clapham-
common, a few woe-lnegone busses make feeble attempts to
grope their way back along, the banks of the great stream.
and do perhaps, by strenuous and poorly-repaid labour, find
themselves in tine heart of a great city an, deserted that it
seems pl nem-stricken.

It is said that the railways relieve the road of a deal of the
traffic on Derby Day. That the railways carry tens of thou-
sands of people to the course we know ; but that they re-
lies e the road is open to serious doubt, since it would be a
physical impossibility for the road to have been more crowded
than it was this morning : and on such a day as this it must be
admitted that the road has attractions for the loss of which
not all the comforts provided by the railway companies
could compensate. The rain which fell so copiously
through the night not only laid the dust along the road
during the early part of the day, but freshened the scenery
to the eye, and caused the blossoms on the trees and hedge-
rows, and the flowering meadows to give forth a fragrance
delightful beyond all power of expression to describe.

The railways—both the Brighton and the South-Western
were in requisition from early nmrning, hundreds of trains
conveying their thousands of visitors having been started
between eight o'clock and noon from the Victoria, London
Bridge, and Waterloo Stations. The earliest trains took
down about 2,000 of the metropolitan police to Epsom, where
they are marshalled under the immediate command of Mr.
Superintendent Mott. upon whom on these occasions is cast
the onerous re.ponsinitity of preserving order upon the
course