the time (children being then an almost unknown luxury) were on the tiptoe of expectation for al fresco flirtations.
Batman's Hill (which has since disappeared to make room for the equilia of steeds of different calibre, the steaming coursers with iron ribs and steel muscles) was then one of the half-dozen beauty spots about Melbourne. Until Batman bestowed his name on it, it was known as the She-oak Hill, because it was dotted with such timber; and the grassy flat that surrounded it on all but the Yarra side, and stretched away into the swamp, then swarming with native wild-fowl, was as if formed by Nature's hand for a racecourse, unless when inundated by floods. Here, where the Spencer Street Railway Station now stands, was marked out with a few stakes, saplings, and broad palings, Melbourne's first racing ground. A "Grand Stand" was formed by the lashing together of a couple of large bullock drays; and the jumps for the hunters were made up of a few logs and gum-tree branches. No such folly was then indulged in as training horses, for the animals brought to the post were the rough, hardy, hard-worked animals of the bush. The era for sporting silk jackets and caps, top boots and buff breeches had not arrived. The jocks were well content to show off in red and blue flannel shirts, cabbage-tree hats, and leather leggings; and the only accessories to modern sporting tournaments then in vogue were spurs and whip-cord, both of which were plied unmercifully. At the date of the races Fawkner's MS. journal had passed from the caligraphic into the typographic state, and of this printed prodigy there is no copy extant giving a report of the first races. Some years ago, however, an old colonist-long since gone to his account-favoured me with some viva voce particulars of the occasion.
First Day, 6th March, 1838.
The morning was as promising as the most ardent lover of a modern Cup Day could desire. Several hundred persons were present on the course, and order was preserved by half-a-dozen expiree convicts appointed as special constables for the purpose. Dettlers rode in several miles from the country to be "all there," and five miles then counted for more than fifty now, for the bush was thick and troublesome, the travelling tracks few in number, and, such as they were, they were cut up into deep ruts by the lumbering bullock teams by which they were usually traversed.
Anything in the semblance of convenient locomotion was an extreme rarity in the small rural area of the province then settled, and folks coming from any distance for the occasion did so on horseback.
The starting post was fixed close by the now North Melbourne Railway Station, and the run was semi-circular, sweeping round in the direction of the Metropolitan Gas Works, thence straight home to the north-western ascent of the Hill, where a scanty scrap of bunting fluttered as a winning post from a pole of the clothes-line order.
J. P. Fawkner and Michael Carr, two of the earliest publicans, had put up what, for want of better, passed as refreshment booths. Each was simply a small cart, or rather truck, surrounded by four wooden uprights driven into the ground, with some old sails and bags nailed around to provide a precarious shelter. The liquids absorbed were rum, brandy, ginger-beer, and bottled porter. There were no sixpenny or threepenny "goes." The Jamaica, Cognac, Bass, or their very inferior counterfeits, were one shilling each "tot;" but the tipple most in demand was a "spider" (an infusion of brandy and ginger-beer), and the price paid for the "insect" was fifteenpence. Weak shandygaff (ginger-beer and beer) was the favourite beverage of such of the ladies as indulged in an out-door restorative. For the Town Plate there were three entries—viz., Postboy, belonging to Mr. Robinson; the names of the other horses are not known, but they were owned by Messrs. Woods and Russell. Both heats were won by Postboy. The Ladies' Purse was won by Mr. Wedge's mare, beating two others—names unknown; and though the sport was of a very indifferent quality, the spectators were willing to make allowance for unavoidable shortcomings, so pleased were they at the introduction of a pastime which recalled the kindred scenes of the mother
