642 Ikinas of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, an& Gun 



riflemen congregated as Lord Elcho. As " Frank 

 Charteris" he had been foremost among the gay and 

 gallant young sportsmen who made Oxford lively in 

 the early 'Thirties. At the Eglinton Tournament there 

 was no more graceful and accomplished cavalier among 

 that brilliant medley of modern knights-errant. In the 

 House of Commons he had made his name as a fluent 

 and effective speaker. In Society he was accepted as 

 a scholarly virtuoso whose opinions on art were worth 

 listening to. As a sportsman, though never the equal 

 of his father, one of the grandest old Nimrods in the 

 kingdom, he had won renown by his record bag of 

 woodcocks at Muckross 245 cocks in eight days, and 

 53 in a single day. With the rifle, too, he had done 

 great things among the deer in the Reay Forest, killing 

 seven stags once to his own rifle out of eight shots in 

 two drives. He was not so successful as a target-shot, 

 though I once saw him in one of the Lords v. Commons 

 matches put on a string of seven bull's-eyes at 500 

 yards, at a time when such feats were not common. 



But it is as the originator and Chief of the National 

 Rifle Association and the generous donor of the Elcho 

 Shield that Lord Elcho is affectionately remembered 

 by all riflemen. Wimbledon would not have seemed 

 Wimbledon without his erect figure in the uniform of 

 the London Scottish, who were as proud of their Colonel 

 as he was of his corps. And his charming wife took 

 as much interest in the meeting as her husband. She 

 sat at the camp-fires, she applauded the shooting, she 

 gave away the prizes, she charmed everyone who had 

 the good fortune to meet her. Ah ! those were the 



