A warm and broken December had been succeeded by a still warmer and more thawy January.

Single-sex clusters of Bostonians made their boisterous way through the streets, hoping to collide with their opposite numbers.

Dawn Run's owner, Charmian Hill, who had insisted on trainer Paddy Mullins 'jocking off' his son Tony and putting up Jonjo O'Neill to ride her in the Gold Cup, was an awkward cuss too.

At the summits of these the enemy sharpshooters waited for them in sangars, or rock-built entrenchments, each of which had to be taken before the advance could safely continue.