A HISTORY OF SURREY 



recognized that the space was too much restricted for convenience or 

 even for safety, but it was not till 12 July 1890 that the first meeting 

 was held at Bisley. The Pirbright ranges in the neighbourhood had 

 been utilized before this for regular troops from Pirbright barracks and 

 Aldershot, and occasionally for volunteers. The great open expanse of 

 country owned by the Government in the neighbourhood made it a 

 suitable place. The National Rifle Association was incorporated the 

 same year to enable it to acquire and hold land for the purposes of the 

 meeting. It now holds 93 acres. The whole of the land utilized for 

 ranges and encampments of competitors is about two square miles, the 

 bulk of it being Government property. Two hundred and fifty targets 

 are so disposed as to be in use simultaneously if necessary. His Majesty 

 King Edward VII. continued the King's Prize in succession to the 

 Queen's Prize, and it was first won in 1901 by Lance-Corporal Ommund- 

 sen. Queen's Edinburgh. 



The removal to Bisley has lessened the number of entries, the 

 proximity of Wimbledon to London had perhaps unduly swelled them; 

 nevertheless the removal has improved the efficiency and business-like 

 character of the meeting. There on Cowshot Common, named in the 

 alleged earliest extant charter dealing with boundaries of Surrey land,' 

 representatives of the military strength of the Empire from every 

 quarter of the world are encamped every summer." 



THE SURREY REGIMENTS 



Surrey gives a territorial title to two distinguished regiments, 

 the West Surrey and the East Surrey, so designated on the re-arrange- 

 ment of the battalions of the line according to the scheme of Mr. Card- 

 well, completed in 1881. 



The historical associations of the two regiments with the county 

 are, however, of the slightest. When after the Restoration the army of 

 the Protectorate was disbanded, steps were taken to re-enlist a certain 

 number of men for the army which Charles II. intended to keep on 

 foot. Two regiments were raised to garrison the fortress of Tangier 

 acquired by the king's marriage with Katherine of Braganza. One was 

 the regiment subsequently known as the Third of the line, the Buffs 

 now the East Kent ; the other was the Second of the line, the Queen's! 

 now the West Surrey. The only original connexion of this latter with 

 Surrey was that it^was first mustered 1,000 strong upon Putney Heath on 

 1 4 October 1 66 1 and that it was raised by and placed under the command 

 of Henry, Earl of Peterborough, the owner of the manor of Blechingley, 

 who^had served in the Earl of Holland's abortive Surrey insurrection in 



' The Chertsey Charter of, it is said, a.d. 675. 



'The editor is indebted to the courtesy of Colonel Crosse Ser M R d r .u 

 the information about Wimbledon and Bisley. ' ' ^°' ^^^ ^'"'" P*" °^ 



' Mercurius Publicus, Oct. 1 66 1. 



150 



