THE CLASSIC RACES. 135 



language. To the Derby, by road or rail, has 

 afforded the industrious descriptive reporter yards 

 of "copy"; incidents, comic and pathetic, have 

 been seen or invented by " our own " ; and the sug- 

 gestion of a London pressman to hark back on 

 the old accounts and republish them with a little 

 " dressing up " was not a bad one. An industrious 

 penman might find in some of the descriptions 

 written twenty years ago matter that, judiciously 

 recompiled, would not be without a considerable 

 thread of interest. 



The number of persons who annually witness 

 the running for the Derby Stakes has been 

 variously stated by statisticians, and has been 

 guessed at half a million ; but other writers do 

 not think the attendance ever exceeded two 

 hundred and fifty thousand individuals ; and one 

 or two well-informed persons who have ventured 

 to take a census of the number present on the 

 Downs on the Derby Day, do not venture to say 

 that it exceeds a hundred thousand, all told ; but 

 even that figure would represent a vast multitude 

 of people. 



The Derby is no longer the great betting race 

 it was at one time. Sixty years since, hundreds 

 of thousands of pounds in big sums, it was 

 thought, would change hands, the bulk of the 

 money going into the pockets of a few persons, 

 and these generally being in connection with " the 

 stable." In some years very good prices have 

 been obtained against the winning horse just 

 previous to the start, and it is a mistake to 

 suppose, as many people who know no better 

 often do, that " the winner of the Derby always 

 starts favourite." That is not so. 



