A PRELIMINAR V CANTER. 3 



of the time ; racing news, in particular, being recorded 

 — when it was recorded — in the baldest manner, prob- 

 ably for the best of all reasons, namely, that few cared 

 for it, the racing public of the period not being numer- 

 ous. Many years elapsed, therefore, before the Derby 

 came to be looked upon as something in the nature of 

 a national event, or till it assumed the phase under 

 which it is now so Avell known, of a great social func- 

 tion, interesting to hundreds of thousands, the result 

 of the race being telegraphed on its decision, without 

 a moment's delay, to the uttermost ends of the earth ! 



It was not till Bell's Life in London began to be 

 published that people came to single out the race f( r 

 the Derby, and make so much of it. After-the advent 

 of that newspaper, for many years the leading authority 

 on matters of sport in the United Kingdom, 'the Derby' 

 became a household word, and annually grew in 

 favour, till it attained the importance of a national 

 event ; but the exact date at which ' The Derby ' be- 

 came the much-observed public festival wdiich it 

 undoubtedly is at the present day, and has been for about 

 two generations past, cannot be given with any degree 

 of certainty. Nor does it avail to speculate on the 

 subject — any ancient onlooker of the spectacle who 

 can be interviewed has only one reply when his 

 opinion is asked : he says, ' It was always so,' but, like 

 * Topsy,' the Derby has ' growed/ until it has reached 

 its present dimensions. 



In another part of this work it is shown how the 

 race, as a race, has expanded in the matter of entries 

 and competitors, from its first small beginnings till 

 now, when to be entered for a struggle timed to take 



1—2 



