All the world and his wife were out on Christmas Day to see the Christmas Hunt. It is one of the wonders of Shanghai, and it made no departure from custom. The Brenan Road and Warren Road were simply packed with vehicles and all traffic had to be held up while the hunters and their friends arrived. The day was bright and warm, and dusty. In fact, the dust was awful, "amd the scene at the start beggars description. The murk and haze, caused by tile swirling dust, was just sufficient to give an appearance of unreality to the whole scene, ponies siwerving, men falling into the jumps, ponies lying on their backs with their legs in the air, riderless ponies careering over the plain, and spectators dotted about everywhere, About 160 riders took part in the hunt, many of them clad in "pink," which looks so picturesque on such occasions. At the beginning of the proceedings they Were mussed on the fields where the Handicap usually starts, but they gradually pressed forward, singing hunting songs, till they Were right up against the mass of spectators, crowding together at the first jump. They were all sent back again to the end of the field, where they were addressed by Mr. E. S. Benbow Rowe with a few words of Christmas greeting, and then, with a cheer and a veil, the mass of horsemen dashed forward to the first jump.
It is given to few to realize what a cavalry charge looks like, but the spectators saw it on Christmas Day, and a most awe-inspiring sight it was. A thundering mass of horsemen, and no time to flee. Then came the jump. The first flight reached and sowed over, on to the next. Then the dust, and more and more riders, seen dimly through the reek, mon and horses, swerving, leaping, refusing, falling, and cries of encouragement from the spectators, Many fell at the first jump, the first being Mr. Soyka, with Mr. Whitamore on top of him. The second jump had still more incident, and Mr. Stitt's pony quite wisely decided that. he would not leap when he could not see anything but dust to land in on the-further side. Meantime, the hunt pressed over Here and There, and up Warren Line to the platform over Tal] Tree Creek, and thence to Pons Asinorum, where several ponies refused so Obstinately that their niders had to give Up the hunt. The trai] had led straight into Panama, but riders "speedily found they were wrong. and followed Mr. A. W. Burkill over the Hungjao Road and round by several new platforms into the Wilderness.
But the Wilderness seldom holds a hunt long nowadays, and paper was soon: picked up on the Handicap Course, and the run from' that point. on: was a steeplechase pure and simple.
There: was little -difficulty at
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.