DERBYANA. 



It would be a work of considerable difficulty to bring 

 into focus much matter about the Derb^' that has 

 not already done duty in print either in the ' memoirs ' 

 of the period, or in the columns of the sporting 

 newspapers, of which there are now so many. For 

 those who make racing matters a study it is almost 

 hopeless to suppose that anything can be given that 

 "will be fresh or novel ; happily, however, there is a 

 larger public — a public to wliom some of the 'ana' 

 belonging to the great race will probably prove 

 acceptable reading, and it is in that hope these scraps 

 are offered as a portion of this volume. 



Subscription pools, ' Derby sweeps ' they are called, 



have existed in connection with the race for a very 



long period ; the writer has not been able 



Derby Sweeps. ^ i i ^ • • i 



to nnd out when they were mstituted, or 

 ■who first becran them ; but he was himself a sub-' 

 scriber to one of them (a half-crown sweep) so far 

 back as the 3'ear in which Phosphorus won. During 

 the last forty or fifty years there is scarcely a town in 

 the United Kingdom in which a Derby sweepstake 

 has not been organized. In some of the larg^er towns 



