3-078-183 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches at Melbourne, Australia, by our Special Artist, Mr. Melton Prior, 1890. '1. Taking Tickets for the Saddling Paddock on the Melbourne Racecourse. 2. Government House, Melbourne. 3. The Grand Stand and Melbourne Racecourse on Cup Day. Melbourne, with its 400,000 inhabitants, likes a holiday in the open air, and takes immense interest, we are told, in the horse-races, which are held at Flemington, three miles northwest of the city, on ground 316 acres in extent reserved for the course, one of the finest in the world, with a handsome Grand Stand for subscribers and other paying spectators. On "Cup Day," which is equivalent to the London "Derby Day," it has been computed that so many as 130,000 people were assembled on this racecourse...our Special Artist...did not miss the opportunity of beholding such a multitude of pleasure-loving colonial English folk...a very small boy...[clambered] up to the window, paying a half-crown for his ticket and a shilling for the book containing a list of the horses entered to start...most conspicuous...from its elevated site, is Government House, with its massive square tower, 115 ft. high, overlooking the whole city. A view of the grand entrance is included with our Artist's other Sketches'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.