The Pride of Our Village. 59 



iQimediately behind the judge's box, and opposite the 

 winning post, time was no object. I did not miss the 

 Punch-and-Judy men, or stilts, or knockemdowns, or 

 gipsies, all of which unfortunate people never stirred out 

 on that miserable day : it seemed nothing extraordinary 

 that the only things visible were thousands of square yards 

 of umbrellas, and nothing else. Nor was anything else an 

 object. A fight took place close to me, in which I took no 

 interest : I saw one man pick another's pocket, and did 

 not care to interfere ; and my feeling was one of gratitude 

 to the hundreds of thousands who had paid our village the 

 compliment to come down in such weather to see our race 

 — for it was our Derby and nobody else's. Here were my 

 parson friend and myself, two representatives of our parish, 

 and ready to fight the whole crowd — one down, t'other come 

 on, — who said a word against our horse, or his owner. Father 

 JSToah might have come by again in his ark, as of yore — as he 

 might well have done, — and I am quite sure that we two, 

 the parson and myself, would have stopped outside to see 

 race. 



I suppose there n'cis some racing before the Derby, as I re- 

 member bells ringing, crowds clearing, shouting, and 

 numbers going up, and occasionally beds of tulijDS flying by, 

 which no doubt were really jockeys and horses racing : 

 nothins^ roused me till I heard the real bell soundincr for 

 clearing the course for our Derby. Quite right of the Com- 

 missioners of Police to send all those constables to clear the 

 way for our favourite. Ah, I perceive that other jockeys on 

 horses take advantage of the open space, and are galloping 

 too. Well, I have no objection ; we are not selfish. At 

 last I saw a crowd coming down near our stand. No, there 

 was no mistake ! there was our favourite, with George on 

 his back, and the owner and trainer walking by him, and 

 one or two helpers and some of the keepers, and I see the 



