ECHOES FROM ENGLAND.

West Coast Times, Issue 573, 26 July 1867, Page 4

ECHOES FROM ENGLAND.

THE DERBY DAT. (FROM THE SPOKTING- COBBESPONDENT OF THE ATJSTALASIAN.) London, May 26. A somewhat fitful spring has replaced the bitter winter, A fortnight or so ago he had a week of July weather, so oppressive and hot was it that summer clothing became a necessity, and white hats made their premature appearance. After the wet we had had everything began to grow vigorously, and the crops looked very well and healthy ; but this did not last, for a cold adrth-easter set in, and great coats and fires became desirable, and on two nights we had sharp frosts —and a sharp frost in the middle of May is not very common. On the Derby day we had a snowstorm ; and for the last three nights the frost has been so severe, that through a wide extent of the country the potatoes and other tender vegetables, as beans, &c, have been cut down to the ground. However, through fair weather or foul, racing has progressed pretty successfully, and race meetings have been well attended. One of the great meetings to be noted since my last has been Chester ; this has come and gone. The gathering is chiefly noticeable for the Chester Cup race, on which a good deal of speculation is rife. The Chester Cup is usually one of the most open races that is run, and many a favorite has tumbled through onthe Rhoodee and many an outsider has had the pull through, and this year has proved another remarkable illustration of this fact. The Marquis of Hastings' Lecturer was made a good favorite of, considering the race and its uncertainties, and started at as short a price as 100 to 30 ; Archimedes, Miss Havelock, Rama, and Moulsey being well supported. Singularly enough, with the exception of the favorite, who managed to obtain the third figure, not one of these was placed; and the first and second places were gained by outsiders, Beeswing and Endsleigh, though just before the | race Beeswing came up to 12 to 1. Lecturer, carrying the top weight, Bst. 21bs., has been thought since to have been a trifle overweighted. Beeswing and Endsleigh carrying a stone less. The race was won easily by three lengths, Endsleigh beating the favorite by four lengths : The Rescue, who was placed fourth, being but half a length behind him. As usual, a collision or two took place, but no serious mischief, beyond putting Moulsey, who lost a stirrup-iron, out of the race. The Dee Stakes, once a famous race, only brought three starters to the post, Vau Amburgh beating The Eescue in a canter. In the Ascot Spring Van Ambm-gh scored another victory in the Brabant Stakes, winning cleverly by half a length, and beating Sealskin, Mr Crawford's filly by King Tom out of Mayonaise, Tourmalin, Conundrum, and three others, and improving his position for the Derby thereby. Knight of the Garter, also, in the Biennial, secured an easy conquest over Fripponier and Opoponax. These events, bearing on the Derby somewhat, were the most interesting in the meeting. The York and Doncaster Springs call for little remark. There was pleasant racing and pleasant weather, but nothing of paramount importance at either. The Bath and Somerset meeting was chiefly remarkable for the coming together of Wroughton and Van Amburgh in the Biennial. In the., Newmarket Biennial "Wroughton raced Vauban to a head ; and it must not be altogether forgotten that in the York August Biennial last year, at equal weights, he beat Vauban, who was a warm favorite, by half a length, running a dead head with Ines, who carried 81b. less Still, as Vauban was said to be in tip- cop condition for the Derby, he could hardly have been as fit at Newmarket six weeks or more ago, for when an animal, human or otherwise, is trained to the, height ot condition, you cannot keep him so for six weeks on a stretch. However, as Van Amburgh had performed well at Ascot, and is a remarkably fine-looking horse, and said to have good staying qualities, the race was one of some importance to spotters of the winner of the Derby. Unfortunately, Wroughton was not quite as he should be, having a sore back, and being rather off in appearance. However, the cognoscenti made Wroughton a warm favorite, laying 9 to 4 on him, and Bto 1 agst Van Amburgh ; but the liontamer proved himself equal to the occasion, and gave Wroughton such a thrashing as probably he never before experienced, beating him by some fifteen lengths. There were three other horses in the race, but the Bath Biennial was not for them. The result of the victory was a run upon Van Amburgh for the Derby, and when it was reported that he had been bought for the large sum of 6500 guineas, and when it was still further reported that that unfortunate animal The Rake had burst a blood-vessel in a trial, Van went up with a rush, and from being 50 to 1 went, with a hop, step, and jump, to 5 to 1, The Rake having gone down in about the same proportion, though he afterwards recovered and got back to about the fourth favorite. As the Derby day approached, the backers of the favorite, despite a murmured warning that he couldn't go the distance, stuck to him, and brought the odds down to 65 to 40, and many were of opinion that by the day Vauban would be backed at evens against the field. "What is there to beat him, sir? Here's Hermit, one of the best public performers as a two-year old, who beat vauban and Marksman and all the rest ■ of them, has broken a blood-vessel and can't train, sc he's out of it clean. Then here's The Rake in the same boat, so their chance is nil. As for Julius, he's a humbug and a deceiver; and Marksman will be second — that's his place. Look at Vanban's running in the Two Thousand. By George! sir, the further lie had run the further he would be ahead of them ;" and so the favorite and his chances were discussed. Now, if you will turn to your impression of March 23, you will find the performances of the six Two Thousand favorites. Those six favorites were also about the six best for the Derby, bar Plaudit ; and you will find the running quoted there a very fair test of the merit of the animals, so no more need be said of their chances, but we come at once to the Derby Day. There was snow and sleet, and wet ; but the Derby was not, as every one prophesied it would be, run in a sn6wstorm, as it was some twenty years since, when Bloomsbury won the blue riband of the Turf. The weather, however, made but little differto the pleasure-seekers ; there were the same crowds at the railways, and the same crowds on the roads ; people took first-class tickets and were glaa to ride third-class, and third-class tickets were satisfied with the unusual privilege of travelling in the first-class. As for the variety of vehicles through Sutton, and the liveliness of "The Cook" — that hosteiry of many traditions, and the scene of more drunkenness [in a limited space

of time than any other public in creation—has it not been written an hundred times! There was the post-chaise and four, with the crack post-boys, who only exist for that occasion, and where they lived or what they do for the other 364 days of the year nobody knows. There is the -British swell with his Piccadilly whiskers, his waistcoat, and his eye-glass, a cleverer fellow than he looks by a long chalk, and why he should try to make himself look like a fool, as he so often does, who can tell ? There are the ladies with the pink parasols and lace falls and prodigious chignons, making them look like the two-headed giants of our boyhood, and the hats, or whatever they call the pancakes which decorate feminine craniums, now-a-days, and the feathers— and such feathers — of all the colors of the rainbow, but which came to unutterable grief before the day was out ; loud ladies in open carriages, and quiet ladies in broughams ; wonderful sights to be saen — surely a good many of them will be still more wonderful on their return. There is the inevitable go-cart and its attendant most patient "moke," and its inextinguishable master the coster, who appears to be enjoying himself thoroughly, if unlimited bad language and beer, and incessant whacking of the said moke, can constitute enjoyment. Then there is that very often irrepressible blackguard, the British publican, in his Newport Pagnel or tax cart, with the fast trotting mare, full of chaff and spirits of various kinds. He will bet a good deal and mix his liquors a good deal, and be a generally intolerable nuisance on his return. There is the snug family party, who begin to eat the moment they reach the suburbs, and who will continue to eat all day at intervals, and whose notion of a day's holiday consists in working their stomachs double tides by means of perpetual " snacks" and " pecks" and whets, with a prospect of blue pill to-morrow. There is the soft family pirty, who will either lose their hamper (roped on behind), or the hamper will lose a portion of its bottom and the whole of its contents by the time it reaches " The Downs," or how would half those bright-eyed, low-browed, cunning-looking young and old scamps who infest races and crowds generally assuage the cravings of nature to-day ? There are bus-loads of medical students and lawyers' clerks, Guards' drags and Stock-exchange drags and Hansom cabs. There they all are, gentle sunple,peer, and peasant, minister and members, a heterogenous mixture, while the row bespeaks Pandemonium on a gala-day. But it needs not to dwell upon all this. The great event is at hand upon the decision of which probably millions will change hands, and which half London had turned out to see. Here is the latest betting on the course, save that The Palmer became second favorite. PJaudit was scratched at the last moment. Thirty horses started, a rare lot of tag-rag and bobtail, threefourths of them without a ghost of a chance, and why entrance money was paid for them goodness knows. 65 to 40 agst Vauban (fck) 9 „ 1 „ Van Amburgh (off) 10 „ 1 „ Marisman (off) 11 „ 1 „ The Pabnev (tk and off) 100 „ 8 „ The Bake (off) 14,, 1 „ Julius (off, tk 1500 to 100) 03 „ 1 „ D'Estournel (tk freely) 1000 „ 30 „ Dragon (tk) 1000 „ 30 „ Grand Cross (off) 40 „ 1 „ Hermit (tk) 50 „ 1 „ Fitz-Ivan (off)

After many false starts they got away, with the exception of D'Estournel, who behaved like a confounded brute he is, and was left at the post. Julius lead for the first mile, when the favorite cut him down and took up the running in very good style as far as " the corner ," here Fordhani took a pull at him, and let in Marksman, who went to the front, followed by Van Amburgh, the Palmer, Wildmoor, Hermit, and The Rake. At the distance the race lay between Vauban who again held the lead, with Marksman and Van Amburgh on either side. Immediately after Van Amburgh shut up, and on nearing the Stand Vauban clearly began to hang out signals of distress, and Marksman looked all over a certainty, when Hermit, who had been ridden a waiting race, shot up from the lower ground, challenged Mr Merry's " crack," and after a very game and exciting struggle beat him by a neck, and the roar of "Hermit;!" "Hermit !" betokened as much surprise as applause. Of course, that a horse which was stopped in his training should win the Derby is pronounced to be a most astonishing thing. Yet there is such a thing as over- training, and many a horse as well as man breaks down under rigorous training, when he would perform well if it were a trifle relaxed perhaps, and it is evident that the rest did Hermit more good than harm. His two-year-old performance was excellent, and at one time he was a great favorite. Yet we are told that up to the last moment even his owners thought so little of his chance that they had not provided a jockey for him, and Daley was put up to ride as Custance would not — rather a sell for Oustance, who rode The Rake in with the ruek — particularly as Mr Chaplin wins L 140,000 Tbesides the enormous bet of L 50.000 which he had with Sir Joseph Hawley, that Hermit would beat The Palmer wherever they met* and LIO,OOO that he would beat Marksman ; while Captain Mashall, Mr Chaplin's coadjutor, is said to win L 63,000, and to have presented Daley with some LSOOO out of their winnings, as a mark of their approval of the manner in which he rode the race.

Mr Chaplin's success was hailed with a good deal of cheering, amongst which was to be heard here and there a sound half scream half sob, telling a tale of heavy loss, if not of absolute ruin.