The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-23 00:00:00

THIS IS THE DERBY DAY.

This great national festival comes aff to-day,
and will no doubt be attended with the usual
eclat, bustle, and excitement. This has ever been
regarded as a grand and jovial English holiday.
All London is agog, and the throbbing sensation
is felt throughout the land. Even city clerks on
this day, of all the days in the year, find some
plea or other for forsaking their stools and desks,
be it no better than that of a " violent cold," or
of a " sick relative," or " sudden sprain," or any
other equally colourable pretext. The legislature
itself throws aside the weighty cares of legisla-
tion and gives itself up avowedly to " a day's
sport." All classes—high and low, washed and
unwashed, old and young, gentlemen and gentle-
men's gentlemen, ladies and ladies' maids, all are
off to-day to Epsom Downs to see "•the Derby."
Not from the metropolis alone does the vast
multitude throng to the race-course. Every
town and station, from John-e-Groat's to Land's
End, sends its special excursion. Rustics of every
degree, and provincial citizens of all shades and
sizes help to augment the great gathering.
The number and variety of horses and vehicles
brought into requisition for the conveyance Of the
pleasure-seekers to Epsom have long afforded an
inexhaustible subject for amusing description.
Perhaps'the question that will first occur to any
one on the road to-day is, where dl all the horses
come from ?—including, as they generally do,
every conceivable variety of the genus, from horses
who never were in harness before, to horses who
bear every evidence that they are never likely to
be in harness again; horses that are too obviously
broken-winded and spavined, jibbers and roarers.
Here goes one stiff-legged skinny quadruped,
vainly attempting to realise the mere memory of
a- canter, behind whom sits a party of half-a-
dozen, pleasantly deceiving themselves with the
belief that such an animal will convey them to
Epsom. There goes a turn-out; forming quite a
contrast to the other—a clashing four-in-hand,
with a brilliant coterie of passengers in all the
gayest and latest fashions, specially got up for
the nonce. As they pass the said cantering jade,
a suppressed laugh tells how confidently they
despise their neighbours, and calculate on their
more early arrival at the common destination,
little dreaming that one of their hired wheelers
will come to a stand-still at the first bit of stiff` I
ground on the rise of the hill, and coolly lie down
with a determination not to rise again till the
race is over. Then, behold the hurry-scurry, the
scramble and confusion, the shouting, yelling,
upsetting of dog-carts and shandries, as the great
rushing throng is suddenly checked by the
obstruction in the middle
.of the road caused by
the aforesaid wkeeler and the drag bchind him.
To-day, doubtless, as heretofore, the road will
present a constant, if not a pleasing, variety of'.
such scenes, for the crowd promises to be
greater than usual,' and as our readers peruse
these lines, there will doubtless be an almost
endless train of carriages and vehicles sweeping
in a settled stream through Clapham, Cheam, and
Sutton, through fields bright in summer array,
glistening with buttercups, and purpled with
rich clover. The weather,., when we write, pro-
mises to he all that can be desired.

On the road to Epsom there are two ticklish
and critical points—the first trying the temper
of the pleasure-seekers, tlne second that of the
quadrupeds. The detentic n. at the Sutton turn-
.1
pike-gate tries the patience .of the bipeds as they sit
there doomed to listen to roadside jokes, accor-
deons out of tune, nigger melodiSts, and German
bands-; and the hill leading up to the Downs sadly
affects the spavined nags. Look at one of them
.no longer able to pull upwards, retreating back-
wards into the carriages behind, kicking right.
and left at every remonstrance from. Jehu ; a crash
is heard, and a few well-packed hampers and
their contents are crushed beyond hope of further
usefulness. This example of rebellion in the brute
creation is contagious, and kicking becomes
a settled monomania, not to be cured without the
removal of the animals from their burdens, to the
unutterable dismay of their proprietors, or drivers,
and to the ruin of their hopes of pleasure for the
day.
At last the Downs are reached. ; but who is
capable of conveying an adequate impression of
the vast and motley crowd? All the world seems
to be represented there. Gipsies, card-sharpers,
ers
thimble:riggers, ethiopians, Kalvanic batteries,
acrobats, minstrels, organ7griAders, monkei Ys