666 ifcinas of tbe TCofc, IRifle, an& (Bun 



But the women of England might do much more 

 than this. They might emulate the wives and daughters 

 of the Boers and become crack shots themselves. Miss 

 Leale, of Jersey, who scored 34 out of a possible 35 

 at 900 yards six years ago at Bisley, has shown 

 what an Englishwoman can do with the rifle. Why 

 should not others of her sex follow her example ? 

 Then, indeed, we should have no cause to complain 

 of the unpopularity of rifle-shooting. It would beat 

 golf and croquet and lawn-tennis out of the field, 

 and those <c bright eyes " of which Milton writes 

 would be more usefully employed than they have ever 

 been before. There was a time when archery was 

 a favourite pastime of ladies, especially those with 

 good figures ; is it too much to hope that a day may 

 come when they will extend a similar patronage to 

 rifle-shooting ? 



If County and Parish Councils were empowered to 

 acquire land for rifle-ranges, as they are for allotments, 

 the range problem might be solved, and every village 

 might have its Rifle Club. Local rivalry might be 

 educated to become as keen at the butts as in the 

 cricket-field, and, as in the old Popinjay shoots of 

 which Sir Walter Scott has given us so vivid a picture 

 in "Old Mortality," the winners would be the heroes 

 of the hour. Their triumphs would be celebrated by 

 appropriate conviviality, and then rifle-shooting would 

 be a popular sport not, as it now is, a grave business 

 for sober-minded persons who take their pleasures 

 sadly. 



I do not for a moment wish to ridicule the serious 



