The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-03-06 00:00:00

GRIND NATIONAL STEEPLE CHASE.

Yesterday, the Grand National Steeple Chase, which for
some months has created intense interest in the sporting
world, took place at Aintree. The race last year, comme-
morated as it has been by a series of well engraved plates,
which luny be seen at most of the sporting houses in the
county , was very popular, and several events connected.with
it will long be remembered.
From, we may say an earlyhour, enthusiastic stragglers were
seen in pedestrian humility, making their way towards the scene
of action, many of them, relieving themselves for the day, from
the turmoils and trammels of city life, and anticipating a
day's enjoyment and freedom on the turf. The day was ex-
ceedingly tine ; nothing, indeed, could exceed the beauty of
the weather. Over night there had been a frost, sufficient
to form a coat of thin ice upon the ponds. The sky was,
however, cloudless ; and the sun, which at this advanced
period of the spring begins to assume his ascendancy, shone
out refulgently ; and though the air, there being a slight
breeze from the eastward, was rather chilly in the shade,
those who kept, like brother Jonathan, " going ahead,"
soon became warm and exhilarated. The country, consider-
ing the leafless season of the year. had no appearance of
bleakness ; but on the contrary gave indication, that with
the first change of wind, the' vegetable world will rapidly
burst out into verdure and• beauty. The road which, ex-
cepting near the town, is macadamized, was as dry and dusty
as in June, and the pedestrians found the centre generally
more agreeable than the foot-walks, which are in some parts
broken or roughly paved.
Towards noon, vehicles of all descriptions began to roll
along, loaded with passengers. Shandries, spring carts, and
other machines, were at first conspicuous; as the day ad-
vanced, carriages of a higher order, from the car and omni-
bus to the gig; the curricle, and finally the coach and four.
At twelve o'clock the course was comparatively thinly at-
tended, end a feeling prevailed, from the then nakedness of
the grand strand and the minor stands, that the races would
not be very numerously attended. Minute after minute,
however, served to dissipate this apprehension. The whole
line of road from Liverpool to the ground had become the
bed of a continuous stream of pedestrians, and of riders
borne on wheels or on horseback. The concourse rapidly
thickened in front of the stands, and soon afterwards
at the several points in the course marked out where
the most difficult leaps were to be taken by the riders
for the prize. Eventually the Grand Stand, Mr. Parr's
lofty stand, and many of the others, became crowded with
spectators, notwithstanding the fact that, unlike a common
race round the course, they could see comparatively little of
the sport, the ground marked out receding from them to the
east, in an oval form.

To the credit of the county and town magistrates, gambling
was almost entirely banished from the course. A few simple
games, and " lucky lottery bags," the adventure to each not
exceeding a penny, took the place of the ruinous hazard and
rouge et noir tables of former years. We saw but one
" thimblerigger," and he was at the far end of the course;
he had but a small piece of square board, which, while he sat
on the grass he placed upon his knees, and besought the ad-
venturers to stake their money. Few, however, gave coun-
tenance to the impostor, and he seemed to be in continual
terror of detection by the police.
The booths, immediately before and after the " chase,"
were thronged to repletion. Some of them were so beset
with thirsty customers, that there was " no admittance"
even " on business," and parties who were successful enough
to obtain a glass of anything could scarcely find room to
raise it to their lips.
A great number of vehicles of all descriptions were on the
ground, and many hundreds of horsemen. The " Sefton
Arms," at the entrance, was thronged throughout the day ;
and the east front became a regular stand for oinnibusses,
coaches, and cars, which kept plying to and from the town
during the whole of the day.
The appearance of the course, and the ground marked out
for the contest, became exceedingly animated towards two
o'clock. The flags outside of which the riders in the race
had to run, and which were, for the most, red, with a St.
George's cross, were plainly distinguishable from any point
within the circuit thus described ; and at all the principal
leaps the curious continued to congregate, until they formed
long, dense, and black masses. On the off side of the course,
where the first two leaps were to be taken, on each side
the lane, the spectators in the higher field formed a conti-
nuous line of upwards of a quarter of a mile in length.
At the other dangerous points to the eastward, and particu-
larly at the railing and hedge and ditch, where Capt. Beecher
fell last year, and at the brook near the canal, vast numbers
had also assembled. The whole of the interior of the course
was also enlivened by carriages, horsemen, and pedestrians.