THE ROYAL TOURNAMENT
AUREA was late for the dress-rehearsal at Olympia, of course. How could one remember it took twenty minutes to get there ? Besides, she thought it began at three o'clock, so she was really rather early.
Two buglers in cloth-of-gold, resplendent against the black satin of their horses, sounded a fanfare as we entered. The 10th Hussars, that famous regiment that led " Vivian's " Brigade. at Waterloo, and have since been leaders in many a hard fought field, including the polo field, were delighting the audience with a musical ride. In single file, half-sections, sections, they pivoted and wheeled and twisted : then formed into troop and charged.. Next came the musketeers and pikemen of the Restoration, marching to "Mars, his Triumph," tall blue pikemcn in the centre, red musketeers in the van and rear, all whiskered and be-wigged. They formed up facing us, to the flourish of the colours, and a gallant on a white horse, plumed and debonair like Charles II., and escorted by a lieutenant and a lancer, took the salute.
There was some mediaeval drill after this, a little slow perhaps, and Aurca began to glance at the programme. "It says 'Take Bovril at intervals,' but if we had another charge --." At that moment the apparently languid men with blunderbusses dis- charged an earth-shaking volley. Aurea jumped, and so did the white horse, whose rider was at the moment doffing his plumed hat. "Those guardsmen in the front rank of the pikes look pretty in wigs," she said.
Men now rushed in with hurdles and brushwood jumps. The Weedon Equitation School cantered in and showed us that horsemanship is well taught in the Army. "Isn't that iron grey clever ? Oh, he's refused the wire. Well, that shows his cleverness. Only a fool horse—look, they're sliding down that hill-side ! "
Whips over withers, " 0 " Battery, R.H.A., rode into, the arena, everything glittering in the way only gunners can make chains and buckles gleam. The enthusiasm of the crowd boiled over during the musical drive, and the applause sounded like a cloudburst in the tropics. Then came white gymnasts, hefty men in singlets who stood like Hercules at attention and sprang like Mercury into the double. "Wouldn't those physical jerks do these old gentlemen good ! " exclaimed Aurea, irreverently surveying the Press stand.
The trick riding of the 17th/21st Lancers goes with a bang from start to finish, as becomes the regiment. Yellow robed sheikhs dashed at tent-pegs with a full- throated cry of "Allah," men stood on their heads as they galloped by, picked up handkerchiefs in their teeth, shot off the helmet of a comic child constable, drove a lance between a clown's legs. A beautiful chestnut horse sat down on its haunches as if it really enjoyed it. Then came the Army Service Corps display, and anyone who has ever driven a tandem will envy them some of their couples. "What do you call tails done in such a lovely way ? Banged and swished ? I wish my hairdresser took lessons from the A.S.C. There's a bay mare that's had hers bobbed ! "
The final thrill was a frontier fight, but there is no space to tell of the dragon transport tanks which whirred into the arena, the bombs that made our hair bristle, the eleven-ton tank that clanged over a bridge and dashed vertiginously up the enemy's hillside. "My money's on the poor what's-their-names," said Aurea unpatriotically, "but it's a ripsnorting, red-blooded show—a wow ! "
". If you talk American again," I said, "I shall lead you away to a chocolate malted milk." F. Y.-B.
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