A PRELIMINAR Y CANTER. 5 



number will now be liviii"', ' if, indeed, tbere be so 

 many. And the roll-call of those who were eye- 

 witnesses of any previous struggle for the ' Blue 

 Ribbon of the Turf ' must be meagre indeed, although 

 every now and again the newspapers of the day con- 

 tain allusions to persons who saw ' such and such a 

 Derby,' naming a far-back race. In Bluegown's year 

 (1868), the author of this work conversed with a 

 person who had seen Pan, Pope, and Whalebone win, 

 which victories took place in 1808, 1803, and 1810 

 respectively. The person in question was then travel- 

 ling with his parents, who were members of a troupe 

 of strolling players, and at the time he was about 

 seven years of age. There seemed to be no reason to 

 doubt his story. On one of the occasions the then 

 Duke of Grafton, who came to the theatre, somewhere 

 in the neighbourhood, gave every member of the 

 strolling company a half-sovereign. 



II. 



The fjreat race and its surroundinofs have been 

 written about from every possible point of view. All 

 that can be seen on the road to Epsom Downs has 

 been many a time related in graphic language. The 

 * tramp ' overtaken on the road by the zealous re- 

 porter has been interviewed in the interests of his 

 paper, while the 'lovely costumes ' of the occupants of 

 the luxurious carriages careering to the scene of sport 

 have been painted in the brightest of colours by ready 

 penholders. The scenes at the railwi^y-stations before 

 and after the race have annually made work for the 



