in before six. We had plenty of time to look
around. Outside we had passed a motley multitude. There were cabs, and
Hansoms, and Whitechapel dog-carts in abundance. Monday is an off-day as
regards many of the operatives and mechanics of London, and they were
thronging round the door, or clambering up the pales, or peeping through
the boards, or climbing some neighbouring height, to command a view of
the race on strictly economical principles. Several owners of horses and
carts, with their wives and families, were indulging in a similar
amusement; an admission fee of one shining enabled us to penetrate the
enclosure. We pay our money and enter. The scene is not an inviting
one. Perhaps there are about a thousand of us present, and most of us
are of a class of society we may denominate rough and ready. Even the
people who have good clothes do not look like gentlemen. They have very
short hair, very flat and dark faces; have a tremendous development of
the lower jaw, and, while they are unnaturally broad about the chest,
seem unnaturally thin and weak as regards their lower extremities. Most
of the younger ones are in good sporting condition, and would be very
little distressed by a little set-to, whether of a playful or a business
nature, and could bear an amount of punishment which would be fatal to
the writer of this article, and, I dare say, to the reader as well. Time
passes slowly. Jones hails Brown, and offers him seven to four. (After
the race had terminated, I saw Jones cash up a 100 pounds fresh
bank-note, which I thought might have been more usefully invested.)
Robinson bets Smith what he likes that he does not name the winner; and
one gent, with an unpleasing expression of countenance, offers to do a
little business with me, which I decline, for reasons that I am not
particularly desirous to communicate to my new acquaintance. I am glad
to see a policeman or two present, for one likes to know the protection
of the law may be invoked in an extremity, and I keep near its manifest
and outward sign. The White Lion is doing a fine business; there is an
active demand for beer and tobacco; and a gentleman who deals in fried
fish soon clears off his little stock of delicacies, as likewise does a
peripatetic vendor of sandwiches of a mysterious origin. The heroes of
the night slowly walk up and down the course, wearing long great coats,
beneath which we may see their naked legs, and feet encased in light