At eleven I turned down a lane about a mile before you get to the town,
and over a stile and through corn-fields by a path that brought you to
the Downs. At the bottom of the hill there was a large and busy crowd at
that time in the morning although but a few visitors had arrived. The
Grand Stand was there and the Enclosure, although very much smaller than
at present. Tents and booths covered the ground extending at least
one-third of the extent of the course, with the signs of well-known
London taverns, long booths, fitted as stables with livery stable-keepers
with familiar names attached. Boxing booths, single-stick and
quarter-staff and wrestling booths.
One large refreshment booth had up for a sign in large letters--"Dan
Regan, the Cambridge Gyp. Refreshments and good accommodation for man
and beast. Palliasse prostration with matin peck, two-and-sixpence," and
appeared to be doing a good trade. The accommodation a shakedown on some
planks, and breakfast in the morning.
There did not appear to be any professional bookmakers, but the betting
was carried on quite happily in the tavern booths and shops everywhere by
everybody. Towards twelve o'clock the company began to arrive and get
into place alongside the course, the four-in-hands drawn up, and
carriages of every description, mostly taking out the horses to the
stables in the tents, and formed a row two deep. The vans and other
vehicles forming lower down in the same way, but further from the Grand
Stand, and taking out the horses and tying them to the wheels, hundreds
of loafers thus being busy selling pails of water and forcing their
services to rub down and generally to extort a fee.
There was almost everything to be had on the course in the way of
eatables and drinkables; occupants of carriages and drags began to have
their lunches spread on the top of those vehicles; corks began to pop and
a general onslaught was made on the provisions by everybody. The
entertainments commenced their business. Sharpers in plenty, roulette
tables, dice, three-card trick, pea and thimble, and the pricking in a
curled up strap, and every phase of gambling without let or hindrance.
At about one a bell rang, the horses were brought out on to the course
for one of the minor races, the course cleared by the few police there
were, and the race run with very little excitement, for there did not
appear to be much interest taken in the three or four races that were run
before and after the great event of the day, the Derby, that was run
about half past two or a quarter to three, when the company had fed and
had got pretty well primed with wine, and the noise became furious and
the excitement immense.
There was a great concourse of people, and standing on the hill just
before the Derby was run it looked one black moving mass, and you could
see almost the whole of the course from start to finish. The races after
the Derby did not appear to attract the visitors so much as the early
ones, and drinking and the other amusements appeared to be all in full
swing and had plenty of patrons, and there was gambling of every form. I
tried my luck at it with varied good and bad luck, but about five in the
evening had spent about two shillings and a penny. I found I had only
sevenpence halfpenny to carry me home out of my sixteen shillings and
threepence which I had started with, so someone was thirteen shillings to
the good; but, anyhow, I had seen the Derby, and had thoroughly enjoyed
the trip so far. There then set in a general activity and bustle of
brushing up and putting to of horses and preparing for the start home.
However the people got their right horses and so few accidents happened
was amazing.
The best of the turn-outs got away first, and the company appeared to be
getting livelier, and were decorating themselves with false noses and
masks and dolls stuck in their hats, and blowing tin trumpets and using
tin tubes to blow peas as they passed by the best of the turn-outs, and
there were a large number of them, with the carriages drawn by four post
horses and ridden by the post boys in coloured satin jackets, white top
hats, breeches and top boots, different coloured striped jackets, silk or
velvet jockey caps. The best of them had relays of horses which they
changed at the "Cock," at Sutton, a favourite halting house. About six
in the evening the road became crowded with both vehicles and pedestrians
of every description, many of them driving most recklessly, and a
breakdown of some sort occurred at every half mile. I counted four
wagonettes, three light carts, one carriage and four vans, complete
wrecks, and left in the ditches and the fields by the roadside, and
several with shafts broken and otherwise damaged and tied up with ropes.
The roadsides appeared like one continual fair all the way from the
course, and the company playing all manner of mad antics.
At Sutton a carriage containing four ladies and a foreign-looking old
gentleman, all elegantly dressed, and a man sitting on the box, had the
misfortune for the post boys to get so drunk that one of them fell off
his horse and had to be left behind, and the other was so incapable that
he had run into several traps and done damage and was stopped by a
threatening crowd, when he got off his horse and wanted to fight and was
quite unable to continue his journey. Just then a four-in-hand drove up
and was appealed to by the lady occupants for assistance. Two of the
gentlemen volunteered to ride in the place of the post boys. The one
left was with assistance tied in the provision hampers and fastened
behind the carriage, while the two gentlemen mounted the horses and drove
off amid cheers of an admiring crowd, looking, in their dress coats, top
hats and green gauze veils and trousers not at all like post boys; but
they appeared to be quite at home on their mounts, and the ladies and all
started for home, quite happy. In getting nearer to London the crowd got
thicker and the fun and horse-play became more furious, many of them
halting at the taverns by the roadside, at all of which there was a large
number stopping outside and in the fields provided for that purpose.
Getting towards Mitcham the pea shooting and the flour throwing
commenced, and the men selling bags of flour there for sixpence, were
doing a roaring trade. The pelting led to a good many disturbances,
often ending in a fight. The occupants of the various carriages and
drags made themselves conspicuous by dressing up in paper coloured hats
and false beards, and using fans and kissing their hands and bowing to
the girls and women along the road; and most of the traps were decorated
with large branches of may and horse chestnut blooms that had been torn
from the hedges and the trees by the roadside.
It was now drawing towards seven, and I began to get a bit tired, dusty
and footsore, when I saw an opportunity of a ride, and by a little
manoeuvring I got behind a carriage without being seen by the occupants,
and sat myself down comfortably on the step and had a nice ride all
through Mitcham and Fig's Marsh, with only a flip with the whip now and
then from a passing driver. Getting into the Mitcham Road and the
Broadway I had to contest my possession of the seat with several boys who
wanted it, and at the corner of the Broadway just turning into the
Tooting Road, a biggish, rough-looking fellow who had been trying to get
possession of my seat, snatched off my cap and threw it down in the road.
I got off, collared and began to punch him, and had one or two rounds
just opposite the Castle tavern. A crowd quickly surrounded us, and we
were soon supplied with seconds, and were hustled by them through the
large stable yard of the Castle tavern into a meadow at the back,
attended by a large crowd of both men and women, and stripped for a
regular fight. I certainly was the younger and the lighter of the two,
but my knowledge of the use of my hands stood me in good stead of both
weight and age. We had a fair stand-up fight, the only one I ever had in
my life, and was well attended. I got terribly punished in the body, but
not a crack on the face. It lasted nearly twenty minutes, when a master
butcher that was well known in the neighbourhood, pushed through the
crowd and said that "The young 'un has had enough of it," and the crowd
began to murmur, when the butcher turned round and said, "If any of you
particularly want a fight, you can have one. I do not mind obliging
you," but the offer did not seem to be accepted.