Punch (66.1874)

236

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[June 6, 1874.

STABLE TALK.

poet—turf sport above
all—is venerable for
its antiquity. The
history of chariot-
racing, the precursor
of horse-racing, is as
old as antiquity.
Traces of this sport
may be found in
many ancient na-
tions, and in more
ancient authors; but
Ossian, Horsley,
and other writers of
the same class, are
not agreed as to the
advantage it was to
the Commonweal.

In Rome, jockeys
stood so high in the
social scale that along

with korsedealers, circus-riders, and veterinary surgeons, they composed one of
the chief orders in the State—the equestrian.

Coming down the course of time to modern days and our own free country, we
find races established under the reign of some of our earlier monarchs at
(amongst other places) Ambleside, Canterbury, Cobham, Galloway, Hackney,
Horsham, Horsleydown, Punchestown (under our own especial patronage),
Runnymede, and in the Yorkshire Ridings; but, perhaps, there is no place
which has known more of the ups and Downs inseparably connected with the
turf than Epsom, in Surrey.

Beyond its race-course and its salts, there is nothing very remarkable about
Epsom.

The Derby was founded towards the end of last century; the Oaks (the trees
have long since been cut down) a year earlier.

The number of entries—which must be made on a Spring morning in one of
the Equity Courts—varies with the prosperity of the country, the price of
horse corn, the imports and exports, the weather and the crops, and the
condition of the course.

There is but one limit to the number of horses which may compete. for the
stakes—the size of the course. The time, too, is left entirely to the discretion
of the jockeys and the horses; Parliament, at present, not having interfered
either to lengthen or shorten it.

The running horses must be three years old last birthday, and thoroughbred—
their age duly certified by the Royal Veterinary College, and their pedigrees
formally registered in the College of Arms. They may he of any colour, but
there is no instance on record of a piebald winner. A dark horse has frequently
carried off the prize.

With regard to weight, fillies running in the Derby, like young ladies
starting in life, have an allowance made them, which, but in this respect they
do not resemble young ladies, they never exceed.

The history of the Derby in its earliest years is somewhat meagre. So that
we have failed to find the name of the famous jockey who was victorious on
Aldiborontiphoscophormo, although he rode the last half mile with only one
stirrup ; the amount of the stakes when that unrivalled mare, Polysyllable, won
both the Derby and the Oaks in a canter ; and the exact time in which the race
was run when Damon and Pythias passed the Judge’s chair nose and nose, and
the issue was declared to be a dead heat.

The country people round Epsom have a tradition that a dead heat for the
Derby is invariably followed by remarkably hot summer. School Boards have
cnly been recently established in the neighbourhood.

Whe would not be a successful jockey, and win the Derby ? A piece of

plate, a pension for three lives, a portrait and memoir
in the illustrated papers, perhaps a pedestal in the
Temple of Fame (Baker Street)! The Ministers of the
Crown cannot hope for more. But if the jockey’s
reward is sweet and substantial, the training he has
to undergo is stern and severe. Early hours at both
ends of the day, voluminous clothing and violent
exercise to reduce his frame to the weight laid down
by law, and a diet of which the main ingredients are
reported to be pickles, porridge, hard-boiled eggs, green
salads, captain’s biscuits, soda water, rice pudding, and
cold tea.

Have you taken a good degree in Mathematics at the
University ? Do you possess a remarkable faculty for
figures ? Do you know all the points of a horse ? Can
you ride a steeple-chase ? Are you a member of the
Jockey Club and a subscriber to TattersaU’s ? Have you
the Racing Calendar and the Guide to the Turf at your
fingers’ ends ? Have you been present at all the princi-
pal performances of the animals since they first ran in
public ? And can you afford to lose ? Then lay on
Atlantic, or against Reverberation, or back George
Frederick, or bet on the Field, or the course, or wherever
you please. Otherwise, take Punch's advice, and confine
your speculations to the sweepstakes in the family circle,
and a pair or two of gloves with that friend of your
sister’s in the black bonnet trimmed with yellow

IIINCKSEY DIGGINGS.

(See recent Correspondence in “ Daily News,” and elsewhere.)

Acland writes to defend John Ruskin,

Who an undergraduate team hath made,

For once, from May-term morn to dusk, in
Hincksey soil to set working spade.

So very Utopian! ... so Quixotic!

Such is the euphemistic phrase,

Equivalent to idiotic,

For Athletes guided to useful ways.

’Tis well for snarlers analytic,

Who the art of the snarl to the sneer have brought,
To spit their scorn at the eloquent critic,

Leader of undergraduate thought.

Heart of the student it will not harden
If from the bat and the oar he abstain,

To plant the flowers in a cottage garden,

And lay the pipes of a cottage drain.

Why should not sympathy rise above zero?

Our “Young barbarians,” toiling thus,

May bethink them how the unwearied hero
Odysseus taunted Euryhachus :

‘1 Give me a yoke of oxen thorough,

And a keen plough that can cut its way,

And see who will drive the longest furrow,

From morn to eve of a summer day.”

Pity we have for the man who thinks he
Proves Ruskin fool for work like this.

Why shouldn’t young Oxford lend hands to Hinck-
sey, . . .

Though Doctrinaires may take it amiss ?

Careless wholly of critic’s menace,

Scholars of Ruskin, to him be true;

The truths he has writ in The Stones of Venice
May be taught by the Stones of Hincksey too.

An Attempt at Wut.

A contemporary, in an article on Cricket, observes
that “the absence of Daet’s name from the list of
players at Lord’s cannot but be a subject for comment.”
Considering the maims and bruises to which the cricketer
exposes himself under the modern system of violent
bowling, a cautious Scotchman might venture to remark
that the gentlemen upon Lord’s list must he daft every
one of them.

De Yino Veritas.—There is advertised a wine under
the denomination of “May fair Sherry.” Is not this
too candid ? All Sherry is supposed, by the Public, if
not the Publican, to come from Spain.