BRITISH SPORT PAST AND PRESENT 



ran in to my assistance and brought nie a horse, though the 

 mob pressed so hard 'twas long before I eould mount.' 



The methods permitted at Mount Pleasant were evidently 

 not such as would be approved at more strictly ordered meet- 

 ings : Morland, it will be noticed, weighed out first and donned 

 his colovu's afterwards. 



Twenty years later we obtain another glimpse, brief but 

 eloquent, of the state of affairs prevailing on a very different 

 course. Thus the Sporting Magazine of 1806 : — 



' From the number of accidents that have happened by the 

 intemperance of drivers and the crowds on the course at Epsom, 

 it has been agreed that there shall not be any races run after 

 dinner, and it is imagined that the Derby and Oaks Stakes 

 will shortly be transferred to some other place.' 



It is worth reproducing this by way of showing the contrast 

 between those days and our own. Accidents occur on Epsom 

 Downs, and not every man of the crowd — ten times the size 

 of the 1806 crowd, we may be sure — goes home sober ; but the 

 multitude takes its pleasure in cleaner fashion now than it did 

 a century ago. 



Turning to more recent times, here is ' The Druid's ' 

 account of the St. Leger of 1850, famous for the dead heat 

 between Voltigeur and Russborough : — 



' At last the flags were lowered, and away went the eight in 

 a cluster, Nat going in front at once and cutting out the work 

 with Beehunter ; Chatterbox and Russborough well up, and 

 Voltigeur settling down about seventh. Along the flat the 

 pace was very slow, but when they reached the foot of the hill 

 Beehunter seemed to warm to his work, and led them up and 

 over it at cajaital speed. No change took place in their Indian- 

 file positions until they approached the Red House, when 

 Marson took Voltigeur well by the head and administered a 

 couple of smart strokes of the whip to rouse him to a sense of 

 his position. The gallant brown answered immediately, and 

 at the Intake Farm was fifth, with Pitsford and Beehunter on 

 his left, Bolingbroke on his right, and Russborough and 



'254: 



