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t e t e c c j c t 1 i I i i i 1 i i i i : : . . , t ; , L l , , y 1 F r . s ORIGIN" OF THE DERBY. I The Fall Mall Gazette gives the following as the origin of the English Derby and Oaks : Since the reign of James I , who founded the Epsom meeting during his residence at Nonsuch its locality has been regarded as classic ground by our race-loviDg public, and with each succeeding year the interest in the Derby seems constantly to grow. Most persons are ac- quainted with the fact of the great race of the year having been founded by the twelfth Earl of Derby in the year 1780, but few, we venture to state, possess any knowledge of the romantic circumstances that led up to the event. In the little parish of Woodmansterne, two or three miles from the Banstead Downs, is a fine country mansion of rod brick, standing in a well- wooded park of 180 acres, known as "The Oaks." In the middle of the last century thiB site waB occupied by what had originally been a hunting box, erected by a society called the "Hunters Club," and christened by them "Lamberts Oaks," from the fact of its being Burroundedby oak trees planted by a family named Lambert, the ancient lords of the manor. At the period of which we are speaking, however, the house hid been abandoned by its Bporting owners aud converted into a wayside inn, boasting no sign-board and doing a trade in Surrey home-brewed a e of the most bacolic kind. The situation was delightful, for the house stood high and commanded very fine views, and in the year 1743 attracted the attention of a dashing young soldier, by name Captain John Bargoyne, who had then just created a great Eensation in society by running away with Lady Charlotte Stanley, daughter of the eleventh Earl of Derby. The gallant captain, a natural son of Lord Bingley, from whom he inherited his debonair and spendthrift proclivities, thought that this would make a delightful home for his bride. Accordingly he bought out the innkeeper, lock, stock and barrel, and without aotually demolishing the old residence commenced-to build on it a commodious country house in the Elizabathan style of architecture. It was not long, however, before the yonng couple found themselves in pecuniary difficulties, and a reconciliation having been effected with the young ladys father, the latter bought the villa to keep it in the family. It was owiDg to this chain of circumstances, therefore, that the earls of Derby acquired property in this, for them, new part of the country, and here was given, on Juno 9, 1774, in anticipation of the marriage of Lord Stanley with Lady Betty Hamilton, the celebrated fete cbampotre, the first of the kind in England, under the superintendence of Burgoyno, now a lieutenant general, who, as a dramatist also, of no mean repute, collaborated with Garrick in providing the book. Now for the origin of the Deiby. The eleventh earl bsqueathed the prop- erty to bis grandson, Edward Smith Stanley, the twelfth earl, who, on May 14, 1779, founded the famous Oaks stakes for fillies, so named from his sylvan retreat at Woodmansterne, the first winner being Bridget, a bay mare, foaled in 1776, by King Herod Jemima, the property of the noble founder himself. Tfiis success so pleased the earl that in the following year he started the Detby Stakes, so named out of compliment to him, the first winner bsiag Dio-" med, a chestnut horse, foaled in 1777, the property of Sir Charles Banbury, Bart. Therefore, if Lieutenant-General Bargoyne, whose military career closed with his inglorious surrender to the American army, at Saratoga in 1778, had not run off with Lady Charlotte Stanley, it more than probable that there would have been no Derby or Oaks, . . : : ! 1 1 . 1 , 1 E 1 1 1 a . 1 s r f . 1, 0 is 0
