40 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



wards. The betting was 40 to i against Phos- 

 phorus, George Borrow, the author of ' Lavengro,' 

 said that of the three personages he always had 

 a desire to see, the second was LampHghter, the 

 sire of Phosphorus, Lord Berners' winner of the 

 Derby, The next year, 1839, was a very memorable 

 one to me, inasmuch as it was the first Derby I 

 ever witnessed. It was remarkable as a sporting 

 event, by being run on May 29, Oakapple Day, in 

 so heavy a fall of snow as to render the colours 

 of the riders almost invisible. Bloomsbury (a son 

 of Mulatto) was the winner, and the race was 

 remembered by me for many years, as I had taken 

 great pains with my costume, a description of which 

 may be given, as affording an idea of the dress 

 of the times. In the present day it would be the 

 height of caddishness to be seen in such loud 

 habiliments, but I was then considered to be a smart 

 lad, and I wore a pair of white duck trousers, 

 strapped clown over a pair of Wellington boots, an 

 olive-brown, cut-away Newmarket coat, with gilt 

 basket-buttons, and the breast looped together by a 

 pair of the tusks of a fox, a buff cashmere waistcoat, 

 and a resplendent blue satin full-sized stock, 

 fastened by two gold pearl pins coupled together by 

 a small chain. I had booked my place by a four- 

 horse coach, which started from the ' Swan with 

 Two Necks ' in Lad Lane, at a guinea fare there and 

 back. We arrived safely on the course soon after 

 one o'clock ; the morning had been very fine, and 

 the ride down most enjoyable. After lounging 



