The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-05 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

THE CUP DAY AT ASCOT.
The glories of Ascot culminated yesterday. The year of
the "dead heat," the year of the first visit of the Prince
and Princess of Wales, will long be remembered as having
brought together the most brilliant assemblage that ever
mustered on this picturesque heath, will long be remem-
bered as marking the transition period when Ascot, like
the Derby, begins to yield to the invasion of railways and
the Democracy. Already Ascot is changed from what it
used to be—a great fashionable promenade, where ladies
thronged the course—when Ascot meant a real picnic, with
the races as an excuse for making it. It had all these ele-

ments yesterday, but mixed with them were others which
showed that the popularity of the great race is extending
its influence beyond the limited circle of the Upper Ten
Thousand. The Ascot is to the Derby what genteel comedy
is to broad farce. All London goes to the Derby ; only the
West-end goes to Ascot. Little dolls and false noses have
scarcely penetrated the fir-clad hills which surround the
heath. A " spree" at Ascot takes the form of a sumptuous
dejeuner—even the itinerant Bedouins, who lead a life of
races, ate subdued in tone and gesture, and make more
money by selling beautiful bouquets than with "card and
pencil " The very niggers feel the softening influence, and
the Derby melodies, as broad as they are long, become at
Ascot chansons anniques of irreproachable propriety and
dullness. There are gipsies, and " three rows a penny"
prosper in a mild and genteel way ; but acrobats, we should
think, must tumble from a pure love of art or from such
philanthropic motives as form their own reward, for,
assuredly they get tut very little other. We find none
of the characteristic features of the Derby Day at Ascot,
except in their mildest and most aristocratic forms—it is a
large fashionable party on the heath, a party which as-
sembles on the Cup Day to " meet everyone one knows.
Yesterday, indeed, all! the fashionable world were per
sent, and since the "Cup" was first run for there never
has been such a gathering on the Heath. A great number
came down by the South-Western, where, considering that
there was the usual anxiety displayed by everybody to go
by the first train, matters were admirably managed, and
those who were fortunate enough to get early seats suddenly
derived the greatest enjoyment from witnessing the un-
availing efforts c f others to procure the same accommoda-
tion, though, as is not unfrequently the case, while they
themselves were disappointed suitors they had quite failed
to regard the little scramble from such a jocose point of
view. At last, however, all were comfortably got off, and
8008, which is saying a great deal when it is remembered
that there were upwards of 5,000 more visitors went down
l.y rail on this occasion than have ever been despatched on
any previous Cup Day, Of course, a very large number
also went by road, but these were Ascot road visitors. No
doubtful teams and overloaded vans—no " gay" animals
with vicious eccentricities; no jibbing brutes, capable of
indefinite entanglement with the traces on the shortest
notice, and always ready to back into the stream of vehicles
behind. In their stead were the well kept barouches or
stately four-in-hands crowded inside with ladies, whose
oyetflowing toilettes bloomed out of the windows in soft
piles of ineffable millinery, looking in brightness and in
colour like the loads which are despatched by nurserymen
to take first prizes at a flower show. The Stand was
crowded, not only in the Stand itself, but in the enclosure
in front—so thronged that there was little more than stand-
ing room in any,part of it. Even the minor and supple-
mentary Stands on either side were filled before one o'clock
in the day, and thousands who were willing to pay for
seats sought for them everywhere in vain. Never probably
on any Cup Day has there been a more brilliant or a more
aristocratic assemblage. The fun of the course was en-
tirely of the quiet and recherche order we have indicated.
There were a few fluent sharpers in gorgeous liveries like
my lord's best-kept beat serving man, who had been
suddenly ordered by their noble masters to leave

the carriage and sell sovereigns for sixpences—a mods of
doing good and benefiting the community which might be
singular, but, as they avowed, was not less praiseworthy, as

indeed the country people seemed to think until they made a
purchase. There were monkeys in wonderful toilettes and
ample crinolines, like Lady Gullivers in Brobdignag ; there
were well-dressed ballad-singers, with here and there quick
little men, all eyes, who drove a furtive trade with peas and
thimbles, supported by a man in gaiters and broad-brimmed
hat, and generally counterfeiting honesty, who won all the
money, and grinned from ear to ear in true agricultural
abandon t. ill a loud voice called out " hedge" as a patrol drew
near, when they all saw friends in different directions, and
went after them on the instant. All, however, was very
quiet, and perfectly en ragle. No noise, no hubbub, no loud
clanging of the bell and ruthless clearing of the course, but
" Ladies, by your leave ; gentlemen, the horses are coming;
do pray keep outside the ropes," and so on.
Just before the first race their Royal Highnesses the
Prince and Princess of Wales came on the ground. It was
not the old grand procession as when h.r Majesty and the
Prince Consort used to come in state, but still they came with
a well-appointed and handsome cortege, amply sufficient to
mark Royalty, though diminished enough to prove that it
did not mark the Sovereign. Their welcomewas, of course,
enthusiastic and and they passed amid the most loyal acclama-
nial" befocirelaigtylabsettn.f,oo the Stand from which so many of our
Royal family
Nobody have viewed these races.
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tPalace"othea
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:lt-ilat is to say, they excite abonuatas "Bienmu Metropolitanc
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Stakes were well contested,
two horses that ran for
Gladstone seemed to beat the
he might have won by sufficient ease to show
chosen. The Biennial was lengths
remarkable only for the
had his jockey
slowness of its pace ; but with threeinr
Spe . race for the Cup it was
very different. Can anything
ax re forcibly of turf
uncertainties than three late races P Lord Clifdenwho it
is the Whimthough to run down, as goad,goad,a 'law'
as ever