Eight o'clock in the evening was the hour appointed for the commencement of the Pyrotechnic Exhibition, when there was a general rush to the Course (lent gratuitously for the occasion by the Race Committee), where a very fine display of fireworks, of endless variety, was exhibited at the public expense. The Grand Stand and the adjoining stands, which were open to the public free of charge, the paddock, and every available spot where a sight of the display could be obtained, was thronged, and many thousands of persons congregated on and around the Course.
The programme included the usual selection of shells, mines, mortars, tourbillions, numerous rockets of excellent quality, and coloured fires of every hue; interspersed were about ten large and magnificent set pieces, one of which was unusually attractive. It consisted of a transparency of the late Prince Consort on horseback. At intervals during the evening the new signal lights adopted by the French and American navies, were fired in various parts of the town, and large balloons, of sixty feet in circumference, were released, and floated high in air. The fireworks concluded with a grand discharge of one hundred rockets. The crowd gave repeated tokens of their satisfaction by cheering lustily.
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