Page:Manners and customs of ye Englyshe.djvu/57

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MR. PIPS HIS DIARY.

A View of Epsom Downes on ye Derbye Dave.

[Wedneſday, May 23, 1849.—Derby Day.]

To Epſom Downs to the Great Derby Race. In a Barouche, with a Party, over Vauxhall Bridge, and by Clapham, and very merry we were, carrying Hampers with Store of every Thing needful for a brave Lunch. The Windows and Houſe Fronts crowded, and School-Boys mounted on Walls and Gates, and they and the Urchins in the Street ſhouting, as though we were going to the Races for their Amuſement. But Lack! to ſee the pretty ſmart Damſels come out to gaze at us, or peeping behind Blinds and Curtains, all in high Glee, as if glad that we were taking our Pleaſure, and good Humour do wonderfully heighten Beauty, as I do tell my Wife. The Road through Trees and Orchards, and the Sun mining through the young Leaves and on the Horſe-Cheſtnut Bloſſoms, and the blowers looking bright like the Leaves. So we on, with Mirth and Pleaſant Diſcourfe, till into the Ruck, which is the Jam of Carriages cauſed by the Stoppage at the Turnpike: and did banter each other and them about us. Acroſs the Courſe to the Hill, the Admiſſion coſt us £1. Good Lack! what a Crowd of People collected to ſee which out of ſix-and twenty Horſes ſhould run the fastest, and what a Medley of Vans, Omnibuſſes, and Taxed Carts on either Side of the Courſe with the People in Front of them, and the Grand Stand crowded with Heads, plenty as Blackberries and ſeeming like a