The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 550, June 2, 1832Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 550, June 2, 1832
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
"Colonel O'Kelly prized this horse so highly, and treated him with so
much kindness, that upon his removal from Clay-hill to Cannons, he had a
carriage built for conveying Eclipse to his new abode, his feet being,
at the close of his life, too tender for walking. The carriage was
something like a covered wagon, but not so wide, and was drawn by two
horses. Eclipse stood in the carriage with his head out of a window,
made for that purpose, and in this situation many of the inhabitants saw
him pass through the town, from one of whom we received our information.
This celebrated racer died in February 1789, aged twenty-five years.
"When the races on Epsom Downs were first held periodically, we have not
been able to trace with accuracy; but we find that from the year 1730,
they have been annually held in the months of May or June, and about six
weeks previously to which, the hunter's stakes are occasionally run for
on the Epsom race course, at one of which, in 1730, the famous horse,
Madcap, won the prize, and proved the best plate horse in England.
"The races were for a long period held twice in every year, Spring and
Autumn; it was then customary to commence the races at eleven o'clock in
the forenoon, and after the first or second heat, the company usually
returned into the town to dinner. In the afternoon they again assembled
on the downs, and the races for the day were then finished.
"This arrangement has been long discontinued, and the races are now
annually held on the downs, adjoining the town, on the Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday immediately preceding Whitsuntide, except when
Easter Monday happens in March; in which case the races are held a
fortnight later than usual, in pursuance of certain regulations agreed
upon for holding the principal races in the kingdom.
"This has been the practice here since the celebrated Derby and Oaks
Stakes were first established at Epsom, the former in 1780, and the
latter in 1779.[8]
[8] A second meeting is held in the autumn.
"Several members of the royal family, and most of the nobility attend
these races; and, if the weather be fine, there are seldom less than
60,000 persons assembled here on the Thursday, when the Derby stakes are
contested. Of these the vicious and unprincipled form a tolerable
proportion; nor is it indeed surprising, where 60,000 persons are
assembled to witness a horse race, that these should obtrude themselves,
either with the view of propagating vice, or robbing the bystanders."
We ought to add that the volume is by an inhabitant of Epsom, and the
profits of its sale have been given to the Subscription School in the
town. It is so inaccurately printed, as to make us hope that more
attention will be paid to the typography of the next edition; for
assuredly so interesting a volume, published with so laudable an object
as that of aiding the cause of charity, should extend to more than one
edition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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