Oct. 21.
Ture is nothing in Shanghai for which its citizens have greater cause to be thankful than the Recreation Ground. We all acknowledge that in practical use of it, whether we are among the hundreds or even thousands who play games on it, or of those who go there to see others play, or merely in passing it on a hot summer's day and noting how it lets in fresh air to mitigate the reek of Nanking Road and the overgrown stuffiness of the Bubbling Well. But while we thus unconsciously pay tribute to the- wisdom of our forebears, few of us. know who they were and what they did to secure this land for the recreation of the community, so that it can never be alienated nor built upon. And we believe that many would like to know and to do something to honour their memory.
The Recreation Fund took its rise from the action of four gentlemen, Messrs. R. C. Antrobus, James Whittall, Albert Heard and Henry Dent, who on November 15, 1860, issued a circular to the Shanghai community, stating that, being impressed with the need of securing a recreation ground for the public before the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.