The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-01 00:00:00

it is a contest to which the men are looking forward,
and for which they have been preparing by most
assiduous attention to Armstrong drill under the
Royal Artillery instructors. The prize consists of c.
10 beautiful silver cups, the tenth, for the "No. 1,"
being larger than the others ; and have been manu—
factured from designs by the well-known architect,.
Mr. Welby Pugin, who is the captain-commandant.
of the Ramsgate corps, the winners of the Queen's
Prize of last year. The prizes, with the Lords and
Commons' cups, the Prince of Wales's Prize, the
Adair model of the Cadiz mortar, making, in all,
with various articles designed for the Paris Exhibi-
tion, a glittering display of plate, are shown in the
exhibition tent of the camp, which has been opened
by the Messrs. Ellington. The Queen's Prize plate
is a thorough work of art, and both the design er
and manufacturers have well sustained iu this work
their reputation, and the whole exhibition here is
worthy of the firm which have made the great. dis-
plays at Paris, Dublin, and Wimbledon.
On the conclusion of the shooting, on compari-
son of the range and battery scores yesterday for
the Prince of Wales's Prize, it was found, as was
anticipated, that the 2d Middlesex had won with
the high score of 39 ; and the 2d detachment of the
Brighton corps made the good score of 36.
Thus the 2d Middlesex are for the second time the
winners of this prize.
The firing to-day was that known as " eccentric."
It was at 2,000 yards with 32-pounders (smooth
bore), and spherical projectiles, having the centre
of gravity in the front, the heavier part being
ascertained by weighing each shot in quicksilver.
It was believed the 2d Suffolk had won the prize
with 34 ; the Folkestone (Ist B Cinque Ports)
being second with 29 ; and the 2d Cinque Ports
third with 29 ; the 2d Middlesex was 25. The de-

tailed scores had not reached the council tent when
this report left.

THE BRITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSO•

CIATION.

LUDLOW, Tuesday.
The twenty-fourth annual congress of this asso-
ciation was inaugurated last night by a public
dinner, and the fine weather to-day drew together
a large muster of savans and visitors from a distance
for the first excursion.

The inaugural address was delivered last night,
after the public dinner, by Sir Charles H. Rouse
Boughton, Bart., the president. Among those pre-
sent were Captain the Hon. G. H. W. Windsor
Clive, M.P., Mr. Jasper More, M.P., Mr. J. E.
Severne, M.P., Colonel Colvin, C. 8., Mr. T.
Wright, M.A., F.S.A., Mr. G. R. Wright, F.S.A.
(hon. curator, &c.), Mr. Gordon M. Hills (treasurer),

Mr. E. Levien, M.A., F.S.A., and Mr. E. Roberts,
F.S.A. (hon. general secretary), Rev. W. C. Spar-
row (hon. local secretary), and several ladies.
The President, after some introductory remarks,
said he did not intend to follow the example set him

by his predecessors in office, of giving a long de-
scription of antiquarian objects of interest in the
neighbourhood, for two reasons : first, that he
doubted whether such a description would not be
out of place at a dinner-table ; and, secondly, that
he felt very acutely his own great ignorance, and
knew how the slightest error on his part would be
instantly detected by those around him, who were so
much better informed on these subjects. He could
only account for his election to the office of president
for the year by the supposition that they believed per-
sons of a certain degree of property and influence in a
neighbourhood might be stimulated and might stimu-
late others, to preserve loyal objects of archaeological
interest. (Hear, hear.) He remembered when, many
years ago, he lived at the Old Priory atWenlock, very
little was said against the former owner of the ruin,
who had pulled portions of it down to provide ma-
i terials to build cottages with ; but great indignation
was expressed against another individual, who a

quarter of a century ago committed dire antiquarian
offence by knocking off a nose from one of the cor-
bels. (A laugh.) That circumstance demonstrated

how much antiquarian taste had improved, that the

entire destruction of a ruin should excite less indig-

nation in one generation than the abstraction of an
unfortunate corbel's nose in this day. lie Mt it

would be presumption in him to attempt to read a
lecture to the higher classes of the inhabitants of

Ludlow, who had done so much in our days not
only by the creation of water works, the ameliora-
tion of its drainage, the establishment of markets,
of schools, and of reading-rooms for the modern
wants of its inhabitants, but who had largely bur-
dened themselves to make their church what it now
was—the finest ecclesiastical edifice in Shropshire.
(Hear.) To the inhabitants of such a town no ama-
teur archwologist need offer any advice. But there
were other members of society who did not always see
the real value of archaeological remains, and who did
an infinity of mischief sometimes in knocking off
corbels' noses. To all such he would say that they
were not marching with the intelligence, the refine-
ment, or the education of the present day, when
they destroyed or permitted the destruction of
archreological remains—relics which, once destroyed,
no commercial success could ever replace. Having re-
ferred to the remarks of the late Mr. Botfield on
this subject,inh
whente overopornetseidminpglatiooof
the
ancientArchpe thingsological
Congress in 1862, at Shrewsbury, he went on to
saythat
could be detected the spirit of ages gone by. He
then referred to the local historians of the district,
citing the names of men, living and dead, who had
contributed to illustrate that history—the late Mr.
Botfield, who so long represented Ludlow in Par-
liament, Messrs. Wright, Duke, Pigeon ; Arch-
deacon Owen, Blakeney, R. Anderson, Nightingale,
and a host of other Shropshire writers. He might
remind them that it was in that neighbourhood—
at Berrington, near Shrewsbury—that au individual
was born in the reign of Edward IV. who was still
living in the time of Charles I.—that old, old, very
old man, Thomas Parr, whose life he should be
happy to show them when they came to visit him
at Downton Hall. He did not know how many
hundred years Parr lived, but if any of those pre-
sent could have survived two centuries they might
have been able to tell their descendants what an
arcbseological meeting was in 1667. He proposed
to say nothing to them that evening of all the an-
cient remains in that locality—the British earth-
work, the Druidical remains, the Roman camp and
town, the Norman abbeys, the Plantagenet castles
with which that part of the country was so thickly
studded; but he trusted his archmological friends
would bear with him if for a moment he reminded
them of how much of interest lay at their very feet.
If they would learn ail that was known of the early
history of Lude-low, and the solitary time the inha-
bitants must have had, they could consult no better
authority than Wright's History. Others had
chronicled the subsequent feuds in which their
castle was engaged, and how different great men
were alternately lords of the castle mad inmates of
its dungeons. It was here, probably, that the great
victory of Mortimer's Cross, Wrighton, Barnet, and
Tewkesbury, were planned ; and here, probably,
the forces were rallied after the great defeats of
Ludford, Wakefield, St. Albans, and others. But
it was not only as a stronghold of war that Ludlow
Castle appealed to their sympathies, but after these
tribulations had passed it became the chosen resi-
dence of royalty. Could those old walls speak, how
many a story of the courtly revelries of the Princes
of York might they unfold, how much of misery
might they not divulge ! But 365 years ago the
saddest scene of all was presented when the funeral
cortege departed from those gates with the remains
of Prince Arthur for their last long home under
Worcester Cathedral, after a short period of happi-
ness in wedded life with the lovely Katherine of
Arragon. Then, again, it vas here that the lofty
intellect of Milton first drew attention in his
" Comus," and here Butler's satirical pen was
wielded. Passing over the government of Sir
Henry Sidney, they came to the time when, stripped
of its roof,the old border rallying place of centuries,
the castle became the ruin it now was. They might
almost say of it as Sir E. Coke said 300 years ago :
—" Si antiquitatem specter est vetusstissirna, si dig-
nitatem, honoratissima, si jurisdictionem cupassis-
sima." If they would gather something from these
antiquarian reminiscences, they might ask them-
selves how careful the thought ought to make them
when they reflected who the men were that quietly
viewed the destruction of Ludlow Castle, and how