THE CLASSIC RACES. 131 



newspaper devotes so much attention to "sport" 

 that no person need be ignorant of any matter 

 connected with the turf, and particularly the great 

 race for the Blue Ribbon. 



Railways to-day give such ready access to 

 even distant seats of racing sport that men are 

 enabled to witness every year as many races as 

 they please, at a moderate cost in the way of 

 expenditure. But for all that, Epsom on each 

 recurring Derby Day becomes a focus of attrac- 

 tion, being annually visited by tens of thousands 

 of persons, " the masses," of course, predomina- 

 ting ; " the classes," however, being always largely 

 represented, members of the Peerage having 

 usually a personal interest in the race as owners, 

 perhaps, of some of the competitors, or are found 

 attending in the hope of seeing the horse of a 

 friend prove victorious. 



"The classes," indeed, have always been liberal 

 supporters of the Epsom Derby ; the patrician 

 element was wont, indeed, to predominate in the 

 list of nominators. In the year of the centenary 

 of the race no less than eighty-four of the horses 

 nominated had been entered by princes and peers, 

 one of the number standing in the name of the 

 nobleman who in that year had been appointed 

 Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly 

 of the Church of Scotland. Upwards of a century 

 ago the race was won by the then Prince of Wales; 

 but before that day, and often since, the luck of 

 the lords and other titled gentlemen in gaining 

 Derby honours has been conspicuous. From 1787, 

 when Lord Derby won with Sir Peter Teazle, the 

 race fell in eleven consecutive years to titled 

 gentlemen, and from 1801 there came another 



