but, anyhow, I had seen the Derby, and had thoroughly enjoyed
the trip so far. There then set in a general activity and bustle of
brushing up and putting to of horses and preparing for the start home.
However the people got their right horses and so few accidents happened
was amazing.

The best of the turn-outs got away first, and the company appeared to be
getting livelier, and were decorating themselves with false noses and
masks and dolls stuck in their hats, and blowing tin trumpets and using
tin tubes to blow peas as they passed by the best of the turn-outs, and
there were a large number of them, with the carriages drawn by four post
horses and ridden by the post boys in coloured satin jackets, white top
hats, breeches and top boots, different coloured striped jackets, silk or
velvet jockey caps. The best of them had relays of horses which they
changed at the "Cock," at Sutton, a favourite halting house. About six
in the evening the road became crowded with both vehicles and pedestrians
of every description, many of them driving most recklessly, and a
breakdown of some sort occurred at every half mile. I counted four
wagonettes, three light carts, one carriage and four vans, complete
wrecks, and left in the ditches and the fields by the roadside, and
several with shafts broken and otherwise damaged and tied up with ropes.
The roadsides appeared like one continual fair all the way from the
course, and the company playing all manner of mad antics.

At Sutton a carriage containing four ladies and a foreign-looking old
gentleman, all elegantly dressed, and a man sitting on the box, had the
misfortune for the post boys to get so drunk that one of them fell off
his horse and had to be left behind, and the other was so incapable that
he had run into several traps and done damage and was stopped by a
threatening crowd, when he got off his horse and wanted to fight and was
quite unable to continue his journey. Just then a four-in-hand drove up
and was appealed to by the lady occupants for assistance. Two of the
gentlemen volunteered to ride in the place of the post boys. The one
left was with assistance tied in the provision hampers and fastened
behind the carriage, while the two gentlemen mounted the horses and drove
off amid cheers of an admiring crowd, looking, in their dress coats, top
hats and green gauze veils and trousers not at all like post boys; but
they appeared to be quite at home on their mounts, and th