A bright sunny day, with the previous night's frost lying in the furrows, the crowns of which were, however, somewhat softened by the action of the sun's rays, but not sufficiently to make the ground very heavy, except in the more exposed situations, ' were the chief meteorological characteristics of Saturday afternoon—the time fixed for the first meet of the present season of the Shanghai Paper Hunt, The time for the cast off was three o'clock, and for some half-hour or more previously, all the principal thoroughfares leading from the Settlements to the Bubbling Well-road were thronged with vehicles, horsemen, and pedestrians, all hastening to the appointed rendezvous, Carter's Cross-road, The scene on the road was certainly one that, because of ite pleasantness and animation, will log be remembered. The cheery, lightsome influence of the bracing atmosphere made everybody feel "full of health," and even quadrupeds, wh inet is said to them when their biped masters and tresses are all right, seemed to feel rightness of the hour. Several of the vehicles, including the stately pair-horse brougham, the Tilbury drawn by a high-stepping graceful Australian, down to. the small but compact pony trap, contained those without whose presence even a meet at Pytohley or Melton would now be considered incomplete—theladies, who, though it is scarcely possible for them here to follow the fortunes of the field, nevertho-Tess showed by their presence in such numbers the interest they took in the sport. The members of the Hunt, too, showed in excellent form, several of them mounting the orthodox pink and tops, adding by their bits of colour to the perfectness of the hunting scene presented, and making one fancy for the nonce that the road to the meet was one leading to—: rell, anywhere at home where fox-earths '<e known, and gorse-cover plentiful. There were, of course, sume outsiders, who, not so particular as to their sporting costume, or, being apprehensive of mud and water, presented anything but a gay appearance; while others, again, cot pounded by appearing in semi-hunting attire, or with the rey jacket, cord continuations, and brown' gaiters of the moor and mountain, But, mim porte, dress mattered little, "the sport's the game," and so it proved before the hour'srun was over, At the time above-named, the rendezvous was crowded with somewhere about sixty or more horsemen, at least rifty of whom had come rebared to inaugurate the season by a hing, and in some instances a splashing
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.