The proceedings at Epsoru helped to give character to the
week, and derived character from it. There was no peculiarity in a wet Derby-day ; but the holiday humour of the season drew a larger concourse than has been seen there since 1840. Prince Albert was then present with the Queen ; he was now there with the supposed suitor of the Queen's eldest daughter. There was no peculiarity in the fact that Lord Derby lost the chief race to which he gives name : he seems to be, ex officio, disqualified from winning, though bound to run and lose. The winning horse was through its owner, we believe, in the Protestant inte- rest; and perhaps that may be a cheering omen for the opponents of Sunday music and the Maynooth grant. One peculiarity of the day was of the gloomiest : it lay in the remembrance of that man who is said to have laid a bet that he would be present, and whose trial and sentence as a murderer had cast a dark suspicion on many an earnest group that mingled with the gay concourse. Few could have failed to turn a thought towards the condemned cell, and to find a taint in the pleasures of Epsom.
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