they have been annually held in the months of May or June, and about six
weeks previously to which, the hunter's stakes are occasionally run for
on the Epsom race course, at one of which, in 1730, the famous horse,
Madcap, won the prize, and proved the best plate horse in England.

"The races were for a long period held twice in every year, Spring and
Autumn; it was then customary to commence the races at eleven o'clock in
the forenoon, and after the first or second heat, the company usually
returned into the town to dinner. In the afternoon they again assembled
on the downs, and the races for the day were then finished.

"This arrangement has been long discontinued, and the races are now
annually held on the downs, adjoining the town, on the Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday immediately preceding Whitsuntide, except when
Easter Monday happens in March; in which case the races are held a
fortnight later than usual, in pursuance of certain regulations agreed
upon for holding the principal races in the kingdom.

"This has been the practice here since the celebrated Derby and Oaks
Stakes were first established at Epsom, the former in 1780, and the
latter in 1779.[8]

[8] A second meeting is held in the autumn.

"Several members of the royal family, and most of the nobility attend
these races; and, if the weather be fine, there are seldom less than
60,000 persons assembled here on the Thursday, when the Derby stakes are
contested. Of these the vicious and unprincipled form a tolerable
proportion; nor is it indeed surprising, where 60,000 persons are
assembled to witness a horse race, that these should obtrude themselves,