Some Mlmblefcon t>eroes 635 



against all the best shots of the day, including his own 

 son Edward, the first winner of the Queen's Prize. 

 On that occasion he wound up his score with seven 

 consecutive bull's-eyes at 1,000 yards. His three 

 sons Edward, Colin, and Hercules were all first-rate 

 shots. Edward was, of course, the hero of the 

 Wimbledon meeting of 1860, and as the first winner 

 of the Queen's Prize will live for ever in the memories 

 of marksmen. Let us glance for a moment at the 

 scoring for the Blue Riband of Rifle-shooting on that 

 occasion. The first stage was shot at 300, 500, and 

 600 yards, five rounds at each range. Hits were not 

 then added to points a bull's-eye counted three, a 

 centre two, an outer one at the short ranges. After 

 300 yards there was no bull's-eye, only centre and outer, 

 the former counting two, the latter one. The highest 

 possible score, therefore, for the Silver Medal was thirty- 

 five. The winner, Sharpe, scored seventeen, and Ross 

 was two points behind him. The weapon was the long 

 Enfield. In the final stage the competitors shot with 

 the Whitworth, muzzle-loading small-bore. The ranges 

 were 800, 900, and 1,000 yards, ten shots at each range, 

 and the highest possible was sixty points. Edward 

 Ross won with twenty-four points six centres, eighteen 

 outers, six misses. The winner was a youth of eighteen, 

 the youngest marksman at Wimbledon, and this fact 

 helped to make him a hero in the eyes of the public. 

 For many years Edward Ross was a prominent shot, 

 and, though he was never again successful for the 

 Queen's Prize, carried off the Silver Medal in 1865 

 with forty-seven out of a possible sixty, after a tie 



