CHAPTER XV 



DERBY DAY 



Ever since May i8, 1847, when Lord George Bentinck's 

 motion was carried in the House of Lords, ' it has been 

 the annual custom of the House to adjourn in the Derby 

 week from Tuesday till Thursday, that not only honourable 

 members themselves, but everybody engaged in attendance 

 upon the House may go to Epsom if they like to do so ! ' 

 Derby day has been variously described as a * recognised 

 holiday,' a ' national fete,' and Lord Palmerston happily 

 styled the Epsom week ' Our Olympian games.' But what- 

 ever it may be called, the interest in it has so constantly 

 increased that Derby day has become the carnival of the 

 year in England, while in all its features it is thoroughly 

 English. It was a happy thought when that period of the 

 year was selected in which a ' fine ' spell of weather could 

 be expected with some certainty, when the trees put on 

 their spring dress of tender green, when the bright blue 

 sky over the vast breezy expanse of grass-covered hill at 

 Epsom Downs is cloudless, and the enchanting country 

 lanes of Surrey are filled with bloom and blossoming 

 plants ! 



The course is a great green plain. The grand stand 

 176 



