Year: 1868

CofTespondenI


LONDON, May 2s, 1868.


There are many ways of going to the Derby. My


way was TO 90 by fast train from Victoria station,


paying irst-class fare and travelling by thirdclass


carriage. Lest anybody should be aggreyed by this,


the tickets warned you that no particular class of


carriage can be guaranteed" Generally, they say,


the whole railway service breaks down on Derby


day. You pay fancy price, are packed in luggage


van, and spend two three hours on the road. 1
was more fortunate. The trains made good time


both going and coming, and the trip comfortable


enough for an excursion year If you don't


care TO spend three six hours and some guneas
in going by tho road in drag or


some other swell vehicle yOu will do


as did, and the gores of the road not what they


once were The railways which have spoiled somany


picturesque things have spoiled this The crush the
delay, the break-downs the inextrcable Jam into
which one delighted TO get, more. Yesterday


you might have driven the whole way with scarcely


check. though the four-in-hands, the wagonettes,


the phaetons costennongers' CARTS and all the end


less variety of turnous for which the road s famous


are still to be seen in reduced numbers and make


gTotesque spectacle


From the EPSON station TO the course is q half


mile walk across the Downs. 1t is the outlying pre-


cincts of the race ground, Uttered with gipsy cots


and tents so shabby that they plainly belong to
lower class gipsy life The aristocracy of Bohemia
are clustered beyond the Grand Stand. If you had
seen them first you would have thought they were
the lower classes II is early and by coming early
we have lost the effect which the first sight of the
thronged course produces on the fresh beholden AS
am the fresh behoder in this instance my conpan-


ion does the honors of the day. He, too Is an Amer
lean, and famous for having come away from
the Derby before the racewas on that day the only
man in million with his face turned toward London,
and underwent endless chat on his journey. This
he does not deny but AYERS that he has since been
every year to the race and stayed faithfully through
TO the end,


As there are several ways of coming to the Derby,
so there are several ways of seeing it. You may stroll
over the ground and study yon picture by bits, or
YOU may 20 to the roof of the Stand and gather in
the broad panorama at single glance. Under SKILL
ful pilotage you will do both you care for horses
there Is the paddock where for ten shling yon may
them saddled, and hear enough horse-alk to last
you tho rest of your hfo. If esrs for men land
there is variety wanting here except the
clerical At any rate if the clergy come, they come
without their white neektes. which an English par:
son wears as regularly as French officer does his
uniform. The ground fills as imperceptiby as the,
stage of great theater to which ever-increasing:
members make their way by unseen entrances. That
little eminence was green when you saw
it few minutes since. Now it is motley
colored with humanity. The line of unhar-
messed carriages along the course beyond the
stand which was notched with gaps when We first
passed along has closed up into an mpenetrable bull
wark From eleven till three the Grand Stand is
North star to which everybody steers. / suppose all
race-courses in England are alike in general
features. This struck being for all picturesque
purposes the twin of the Doncaster course, over
which saw the ST. Leger run last year. The stand
is bigger, there is hilloek against it which is
wanting TO the Doncaster, but the sweep of the
course itself is nearly the same the curve from the
Red House is the counterpart of Tattenham Corner,
md the same multitude swaIms over both. London
rs, jealous of the fame of the Derby will not allow
hat there can be comparison between the two
aces in numbers or anything else, but an outsider
yho had witnessed last years extraordinary Leger
lay might die content without sight of the Derby.


Under this blazing sky the gores of the great fes-
ival shine out with unusual splendor. The few
english acquaintance whom meet desire to be
omplimented on the weather They SO eager on
his point that they obge suspect that the race
commonly seen through shower or unseen in
Dg. They admit that il rained last year. In fact,
here was rain, and snow, and hail But to-day they
ave made bargain with the clerk of the weather.
nd the sun has burned the haze out of the air but
1T the grass unwithcrcd and a soft breeze tenn
ers the heated rays. 1t is such q day
comes once IN several years in this
tile island, where commonly the weather
langes as rapidly sllipboard and there are six
imates in "a hours Yet even to-day the suspicious
riton, too well acquainted with the caprces of his
", is inseparable from his umbrella. Rather too
any of them look as if they had postponed washing
'sterday III expectation Of dTenching to-day A
ction of the London mob Is here. You can pick out
EN- who saw Michael Barrett strangled TO death in
ewgate yesterday IdOnt know which event Is tho
ost perfect flower of Ango-Saxon civilization the
angling or the Derby. Tie newspapers give rather
ore space TO the latter
There is another sort mob which il is the fashion
call respectable. The Bookmakers The men who
AXE betting on races profession. A racing man
no was recently robbed at a Brighton hotel wrote
The Times that the hotclkeepers ought TO admit


y respectable guests, and that there were from 500
1000 respectable bookmakers travelling about the
untry exposed to odcprcdaii0nsf carelessness in
e management OF the inns. The money they robbed
'm others i'll the day was robbed from them at
ght by members of another profession which society
not yet agreed TO consider respectable. The 1.oO0
;pectable swndleIs are all here to-day. They are
the drinkingrOoms of the stand lwheTe not they
I their victims drink in the saddling ground,
yerng about the private stands where some young
ell not vet plueked clean attracts them; above all.
thering in the rallied area in front of the Stand,
lere the betting is fast and furious down to the
ment of starting. A little knowledge of horses.
tie skill in figures, bright red neek-tie, and
lel face-that is your professional bookmaker IIe
ther runs, nor OWNS, nor backs ahorse; he backs
field, will lag You the odds against any horse YOU
Q, and lives by the losses Of better men than him.
Knayes and fools composing the Turf.