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

THE DERBY DAY.

The Derby Day, and all relating to it, is a tale
'which has been told more or less completely for the
last 84 years, and, to do it justice, we may say it is
about the only tale that will bear telling so often.
One fine Derby Day is, in a general way, as like
another as two peas, yet even the most constant
frequenter of the race finds in its rush and whirl,
its fun, noise, toil, and hurried incidents, something
ever new. It is all nonsense to talk of it as a race
only. Will, any man of a calculating turn of mind,
who looks at the dresses, the smart turns out with
heavily.gorged hampers lashed behind, tell us that
racing is the object of it all, or will he not rather
be of our opinion, and regard it as the metropolitan
pic-nic, London's only Carnival and great day out ?
It is all very well to gloss the matter over by an
measional reference to the " Kerrekt Kard," or
some mild talk of latest betting " at the Corner,"
odds," " fields," " favourites," " dark horses," and
other turfite " shaves." But the men who are going
to the Derby because every one else goes there, and
who evinced as much eagerness to be off as if they
owned half the starters, in reality would not much
care if the race was to be run in four-wheeled wag-

Bons. The Epsom epidemic which seizes Lon
doners on this occasion is a very subtle disease, the
influence of which is not felt in all its force " till
the sun gives promise of a goodly day." Then it is
that everybody yields to the mania, from the
little children carrying large ones who sit in
the dust and shout at everything on wheels, up
to those venturesome youths who are seized with
such sudden indisposition the night before as to be
quite incapable of attending to business, &c., and
who now show the rapid progress of their malady
by appearing behind cigars, white-hatted and little
dolled, dashing aside their blue veils with graceful
nonchalance, and making believe as if they did not
want to wear them. The Elephant and Castle is
the great rendezvous for such choice spirits. Not
that they care about the road ; the road may do
well enough for ladies, but they go to see the race,
of course. As turfites and sporting characters,
therefore, they interchange third-rate racing scandal
loud enough to attract the notice of the seedy in-
dividuals who have been betting thousands with
ostentatious secrecy among themselves. Notwith-
standing the magnitude of their transactions, how-
ever, these betting men are very affable—very ;
and, though standing to win or lose ten thousand
pounds, they are nevertheless open to small offers,
and, addresses being exchanged, book bets of a
pound or 30s. with suspicious greediness. Coach-
load after coach-load of such frolicsome pets roll
away, some of whom have already so far antici-
pated the pleasures of the day that even thus early
they require a friendly hand to steady them in
their seats. It is ten o'clock, the traditional dust
has risen to its full height, the weather is hot, the
road swarming, and the Derby Day begins. It is
all very well to rail against the dust, but it is our
deliberate conviction that the Derby would be
a failure without it. People dress for it,
look for it, and almost like the taste of it, when
it comes. There may, however, have been a
little too much of it yesterday, for the road was
marked by a dense ridge of stony particles of such
consistency that it seemed hard to believe it would
ever disperse again, but remain suspended evermore
a permanent feature of the landscape. Each cortege
seemed to be waited on by its own particular si-
moom, which hung upon its track with suffocating
pertinacity, reducing " horses and colours of the
riders" to one dull arid hue, which rendered recog-
nition of friends or features difficult. Is it possible
to ascertain the precise number of luncheons lost
yesterday through:friends on the Downs being thus
disguised completely in gritty atoms ?
The road yesterday was much the same as here-
tofore—that is to say, as indescribable as ever. On
it might_be seen everything that would go upon
wheels, and not a few which, as it eventually
tarned out, would not go at all. There was every-
thing in the way of vehicular contrivance—grand,
moderate, seedy, and used-up—from the very fast
drag down to the humble costermonger's cart, or
the not much better postchaise which had been a
pigeon roost any time these months past in the
worst inn's worst yard. The quadrupeds, as a
matter of course, were as numerous and not less
varied, comprising a liberal percentage of those
that wouldn't go and those that couldn't, and
never should have been tried at all. All through
Clapham and Cheam the road was lively, and the
turnpikes as annoying and obstructive as ever.
The "villa residences" and " eligible family man-
sions" were stuccoed over with fair spectators,
beginning with young ladies in charming morning
costumes in the gardens, making believe to be in-
different to drags and guardsmen, and ending at the
upper windows with a perfect show of babes and
nurslings, apparently not a whit the less interested
because they knew nothing of the matter. All the
" Minervallouses," and " young ladies' seminaries,"
too, were well represented, the young ones occa-
sionally darting across the road, as Punch's cab-
man would say, " as if it was their private gard-
ing," or pausing timorously upon the brink of the
path with such noire helplessness as engaged the
sympathy of the young men whirling by, and not
the less effectually because the belles appeared to
bear their check with cheerful patience. Passing
Merton, the evidences of mishaps became more
numerous, and now and then was met a party leak-
ing wrathfully at the ill-conditioned brute that had
brought them to grief, and which was slid contem-
plating his hoofs with unswerving obstinacy, or
else, as.near the course, it was a bony animal who
hid 'died outright, and r,eltteed the blue-veiled
clerks to the unpleasant necessity of passing the
night under a hedge or getting into the shafts them-
selves. Of course, for theee last there was no want
of consolation in the way of liberal (-Mrs from
the passers-by to let their friends know where
they were, that the servant might be sent for
them at bedtime, with friendly intimations
now and then that the lamented decease of the
quadruped would necessitate their calling for
" orders" next day on foot. It seems strange,
but it is no less true, that somehow or other it
is generally the very ambitious equipages which
thus fall•short. The costerrnonger, with his family
of nine inside and a select circle of immediate
relatives on the shafts, manages to jog on well
enough. The hill up to the eourse is, however, the
great touchstone of equine merit, and at this point
it is astonishing the unanimity with which the
horses appear to entertain the idea that they have
done enough. The " go 3 animals, that have been
entering short protests on their bind lrgs all the
way down, now come out in their true coloure, and
the result is a dead stop for some 10 minutes, till
the refractory brute is lashed into a field, when it
is suddenly discovered that another animal—of
course in the narrowekt part of the road -has be
come so reconciled to Standing still that it is diffi
cult to persuade him to move on again. At last,
however, mingling with the crowd of pedestrians
from both railways, the whole stream pours on•to
the course, and settles down for a time, if we may
so term it, into a vast metropolis, in all save the
houses. Yesterday it was crowded as we have seldom
Been it. The Hill, the Stand, the Corner were black
with one dense mass of human beings of every grade,
from peers to pickpockets ; and all numerous
"Aunt Sally's" were this time too many for their
admirers, and their battered countenances were left
unnoticed by the crowd who thronged in little
groups all over the course to gaze upon the real
battering of countenances afforded by a glove repe-
tition of the contest between Heenan and Sayers.
There is no disguising the fact that the " noble
art of self-defence," as exemplified yesterday by
the minor luminaries of the Ring, all over the ground,
was the attraction of the day. Even the licibt of
science paled before the excitement of " etcP in"
, " feinting," or " hitting with tb% left," and ;the oe
h,men
with voltaic batteries, hitherto so patronised, in vain
besought the passers-by to take the most astoni-h-
-jug shocks for "only one ha'penny." Panda anti
Judy, performing monkeys and precociow, children ;
dogs wearied and foot-sore, but still on their hind
legs staggering through a weak performabce in
spite of tempting morsels thrown them by the mis•
chievous, were all disregarded when a ring was
formed for &tic science. The crowd at once gathered
round the scene of the mimic combat, where the