662 ifcfngs of tbe 1Rofc t IRifle, anfc Gun 



at 200 and 300 yards, and it was, I think, with a Terry's 

 breech-loading carbine that I had my jaw nearly 

 smashed at Cambridge owing to the breech-bolt flying 

 out. To anyone possessed of a private range, like the 

 late Sir Henry Halford, I can imagine nothing more 

 interesting than to refurbish these old weapons from 

 time to time and bring them out to test their powers 

 against the latest modern rifles. Handicap matches, 

 Old versus New, should afford capital sport. 



It is a fond dream of some enthusiasts that England 

 may yet become a nation of marksmen, and that 

 English riflemen may win as world-wide a renown as 

 the famous English archers of Crecy and Agincourt. 

 "If," wrote Sir Henry Halford once, "the youth of 

 England could use the rifle, the strength and power of 

 the United Kingdom would be invincible." Theo- 

 retically no one will deny the truth of that statement. 

 But practically I regard the idea of a nation of 

 marksmen as a mere visionary's dream. It seems to 

 me ridiculous to talk of making the English a nation 

 of marksmen in the sense, for example, in which 

 the Boers are or were. The Boer's conditions of life 

 are utterly different from ours. He has the wide veldt 

 to roam over, he has living targets in the shape of game 

 on which to test his skill, his rifle is his constant 

 companion, he has not to trouble himself about finding 

 ranges at which to shoot in safety, he can keep his 

 hand in all the year round in the course of his day's 

 work. Only under such conditions can a nation of 

 marksmen exist in these days, and it is useless to expect 

 that England, crowded, cribb'd, cabin'd, and confin'd 



