The Express.
London, England, 1860-05-24 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS

your opinion of as bones, and the last sews of the braking,
sad • host of other questions, which preenpposo you as
adept—and who will decline being thought an adept,
so long as he inn get a discriminating public to swept
him in the character We verily believe that if the Bishop
of Loudon or the Fad of Shaftesbury were once to plunge
into that narrow strait, they would come to know all about
the Wizard, and Beexaneer, and the odds, las if by instinct,
would take sornatking out of their pockets to look like •
betting book, and would push and strive on far the open
with as much eagerness and anticipation of saloyeaset ae
any of the rest of the crowd.
What • sight, what sounds, what sensations, as you have
overcome the Let policeman, foiled the last pickpocket,
declined the last offer of the most tempting odds, sad
planted yourselflou the sacred lawn of the Grand Stand,
looking out at merry England making holiday. A profound
reflection occurs to you, and you sagaciously remark to your
neighbour, " What a lovely day to which he, struck by
the uovelty of the observation, replies, " Yes it is, but I
hope we shan't have rain." Yes, the Lords may usurp our
taxing privileges. but so long as they leave us our weather
a,d our umbrellas, Englishmen meeting in • crowd will
never want for topics of conversation. Where is the
course .! The place where it used to be ia black sad surging
like the ocean in a gale. Here and there a stray policeman
surges up and down hie • stormy petrel, a soldier of the
Guards is borne helplessly along on the billows, or a parasol
Amite past lake some tiny memorial of a wreck. There is a
Babel of discordant sounds. The shrill voices of the ladies
who sell the cards, the sharp crack of the tin gems dries for
ante, bells ringing everywhere apropos of nothing, NE.Der•
ling himself riding frantically up and down, and every one
pushing, swearing, making futile attempts to smoke, an.
looking oat for some friend to admire the extraordinary
paletot which has been got tip regardless of expense for this
special suasion. Baise your head a little and look
amiss towards the hill. There is another nation there,
surrounded by and entrenched behind all the vehicles in
the world. Fifty thesemad ifejessrsers in the open air are
eissullammously going as, and you hear the distant report of
the eberepagne mike, which, alas! do not fly for you.
There is a wilderness of parasols, pink and blue, and deli-
cate white, a prevailing voraciousness which you abhor,
beaus* it is so ter ea, and in the immediate foreground all
the travelling *glean have congregated to amuse the
people oe the hill, who sera to be thinking of hempen ,
sad madwichse, end Amperes, sod Fortnum sad Massa,
sad everythieg, la het, but the great buainme of the day.
There is one race before, sad two or three after the Derby,
but we could never inset say one who either looked at the
foot, or thought it worth while to wait for the last. Our
theory about the Ant is that its only use is to enable Mr.
Walker and his inspectors to rehearse their grand operation
of clearing the course, which has to be done in reality for
the great event of the day. The quantity of pushing sad
driving about that freeborn Englishmen take with the lust
perfeetgood humour deringthistrying openttioa isaensibig
that shoat sorpesese bat They are swept up lied dew.,
and everywhere, by the Owens " Bless," and ia sheet in
Paiute* a treed green me sweep majestically rood when
jut Wove all bed by bum hoes and henna velem.
The it tor the pregroatery osier, for which afa the wee.
baton prepare by oremencing an intense study of the
"correct card," the said card being, next to an Assyrian
mannecript, a page of Bradshaw, or a railway balanceokeet,
probably the most difficult document iu the world. You
beer the approaching tramp of the horses you see the
colours, white, yellow, pink and green—you endeavour to
ideality them by • reference, but by the time you have
lewd them out in the card, both hone and rider are far
away et the other end of the course, and you put your cor-
red card le your pocket in despair.
Perimpathere is set is the whole circle of human feelings
a more exciting ammont than that which elapses between
the Goal announeemett of the start for the Derby and the
dropping of the embers at the winning post. At first
there is a distant INIUTTOUZ, which seems to run along the
air, then the straining eyes see a mountain of
distant objects flitting along the edge of the hill,
then there is • tramp, tramp— the ground begins
to quiver, the shouting grows louder and nearer,
everyone calls frantically to everybody else to take off his
hat, the horses sweep by like a tornado, the jockies are seen
plying their whip with desperation, the " ruck " breaks,
the failing horses drop off in despair, and at last with one
wild bound the winner springs away, and shoots past the
post amid the universal shout with which strained expec-
tation at length relieves, itself. Then the horses are all
' brought down to the Grand Stand, the crowd breaks into
' the ring, and if all the crowned heads in Europe were
suddenly to appear upon the scene, they would not obtain
one tithe of the admiration of which TLIWINANBY was the
object at that particular moment