Although it is understood that
Queen Victoria has formally forbidden the prince of Wales to assist at
these profane solemnities, this interdict has not prevented the
appearance there of some of the principal personages of England, and we
have several times noticed the presence of the dukes of St. Albans,
Argyll, Beaufort and Hamilton, the marquis of Westminster and Lords
Powlett, Howard and Falmouth; though the last, be it said, is believed
to be influenced by his respect for the day in his refusal to run his
horses in France.
Those who remember the foundation of the Grand Prix will recall the
extraordinary excitement of the occasion, when the whole population of
Paris, as one of the enemies of the new system of racing said, turned
out as they would to a capital execution or the drawing of a grand
lottery or the ascension of a monster balloon: the next day the name of
the winner was in everybody's mouth, and there was but one great man in
the universe for that day at least--he who had conceived the idea of
the Grand Prix de Paris. The receipts on this occasion amounted to
eighty-one thousand francs: last year they were two hundred and forty
thousand.
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