! 42 ENGLISHSAGA

split its sides in uninhibited and unashamed laughter at the
gargantuan jests and antics of the Dame and goggled its eyes
at the tight-laced, broad-bosomed, ample-flanked Principal Boy.
The pantomime had full licence to be coarse, and respectable
fathers and mothers who took their families to revel in its rich
spectacle would have been gravely disappointed had it been
otherwise. The crowded house rocked at the broad jests, gaped
with delight at the tinsel scenes in which fairies and genii floated
before ethereal landscapes of gold, crystal and diamonds, and
uproariously applauded the brutal, noisy but good-humoured
parody of the Harlequinade.1

To see Victorian England really enjoying itself, no spectacle
compared with the Derby. With the growth of London it had
become the chief sporting event of the year. On the way to
Epsom all the world mingled, fours-in-hand with rakish young
gentlemen smoking cigais and wearing check trousers and muslin
shades on their top-hats; ladies with parasols in open carriages;
crowded family brakes; pearl-buttoned costers in donkey carts;
cabs, barouches, droskies. Every one was laughing, chaffing and
shouting, with only a single thought and destination. The
windows and balconies of the mellow, shaded Georgian houses
along the road to the Downs were alive with smiling faces, the
walls were crowned with cheering schoolboys and on every
village green stood groups of pretty girls with new ribbons and
finery fluttering under the tender, sun-kissed leaves of the chest-
nut trees. Every giri who acknowledged the waving hands and

lThcre is a description of one in Monsieur Wey's account of a visit to the Surrey
Theatre in the dosing year of the Crimea War :

* AH the characters join in a rough and-tumble, and the pantomime commences in
real earnest. Blows are freely exchanged with any available instruments, the actors kick,
laugh, yell, jest, roar and rollick in an indescribable pandemonium. Thereupon mock
policemen intervene and are roughly handled by the actors. Meanwhile the background
representing the different London districts moves slowly past. Then comes a scene of
political satire. The General Staff of the British Army drag themselves in on crutches;
Gobden and his adherents are flogged like schoolboys; food adulterers are belaboured by
the people. Suddenly the scene changes to a market-place and is swarming with live

* Meanwhile Admiral Napier had appeared in full-dress uniform, ordered a few
Cossacks to be put in irons, shaken the editor of the Times by the hand, been chaired,
then discarding his uniform danced a frantic jig with Harlequin. It all ended by a
scene in an enchanted island lit by multi-coloured Roman candles. From the centre
rose an enormous spray of flowers, supporting the figures of Queen Victoria and
Napoleon HL standing hand-in-hand. These parts were taken by small children in
consideration of the demands of perspective. The Prince of Pearls and the Queen of
Grapes crowned them with laurel wreaths, the young ladies of the ballet grouped them-
selves around with their legs in the air, Columbine and the down fell on their knees,
Richard IITs soldiers presented arms, and the curtain fell to the majestic strains of
? God Save the Qseea."* A frenchman sees the English in the 'fifties, 114-21.