“The Press” In 1865

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 14

“The Press” In 1865

December 19 .Yesterday was very generally observed as a holiday, and at a very early hour in the tnnrnlng pleasure seekers were making their way to the station, en route for the Encampment. The day was a very fine onet rather too warm, perhaps, particularly as at Hillsborough no shade of any description is to be bad, but at intervals a fresh cooling breeze was blowing. The number of visitors on the ground was fully equal to that of last Easter, , and at one o’clock there could not have been less than 2000 persons on the ground. The number of volunteers had also much increased; the return of those who were provided with dinner amounted to about 380, so that 400 will

not be an over-estimate of those present The Lyttelton Artillery arrived on the ground about eleven o’clock, having paraded at Lyttelton, and limbered up their 12-pounder Armstrong gun at three ajn. They numbered about thirty, and their presence would have been made much earlier at the Encampment had they been enabled to obtain a vent piece in the place of the one which it wilt be remembered disappeared in a moat mysterious manner shortly after the arrival of the gun. The uniform of this company was decidedly the handsomest of any on the ground, and the manner in which they handled their weapon showed that they were as smart at duty as in appearance.