The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-08 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL RIFLE MATCH.

There was an unusually large attendance of
visitors to witness the progress of the various
matches on Saturday, and in the afternoon the
muster of Volunteer spectators was very numerous.
The weather, fortunately, was all that could be
desired as regarded those anxious to see what was
going forward, though for the actual competi-
tion it was scarcely so propitious. The wind
still continued very strong, though not so
high as on previous days, and the Volunteers,
having now perforce become accustomed to it,
better allowances were made, and the firing, on the
whole, was excellent. On Saturday the first stage
of the competition for the Queen's prize (with the
exception of shooting off the ties) was brought to a
close. This first stage, we may explain, consists in a
general contest among all competitors at 200, 600, and
600 yards. The 20 among these who make the highest
score become each entitled to a preliminary prize
in the shape of a superb Whitworth rifle, worth £25,
while the highest score of all among this 20 receives
the large silver medal of the association. These 20,
with 20 more who score the highest after them, are
the 40 who, on Wednesday next, will finally compete
with five shots each, at 800, 900, and 1,000 yards
for the champion's plate, the Queen's prize of £250.
Saturday's shooting was for this contest what pass-
ing the corner is for the Derby ; and
i if the re-
sult did not positively show the winner, t certainly
discovered the favourite for the struggle. Sergeant
Duggan, of the 26th Lancashire, whose shooting has
throughout been splendid, gained the highest score
of all by three points, his five nearest competitors,
Hendrie, Moir, Kirkwood, Brooks, and dopling,
only making 20 each. This gentleman, therefore,
is unquestionably the leading favourite for the great
prize. The score now stands thus :---1 competitor
with 23 points, 5 of 20, 5 of 19, 14 of 18, and 18
who have marked 17, or 43 competitors in all.
The 11 competitors who have marked from 19 to
23 have thus secured their right to a Whitworth
rifle and a place in the contest for the Queen's prize,
Sergeant Duggan taking the silver medal as the best
shot in the first stage. The remaining 29 competi-
tors will be made up to-day by the ties at 17 and
18 shooting off for the possession of the remaining
nine Whitworth rifles, when the 20 who gain these
and the 20 next best to them become the sole com-
petitors for the plate on Wednesday. It may be
taken as a fair proof of the amazing progress of our
riflemen since last year, and the vastly increased
skill with which the prizes are now competed for,
when we find that Mr. Ross, the champion shot, has
not even got a place in the list of this preliminary
competition for a distinction which last year he won
with ease.

The following was the state of the score up to
Saturday night :

Total points.

Duggan, 26th Lancashire
Hendrie, Ayrshire Rifles
Moir, Stirling Rifles ..
Kirkwood, 2d Renfrew
Brooks, 12th Middlesex
Jopling, South Middlesex
Rushton, Ist Northampton ..
Goodcliffe, 11th Herts Rifles
Bingham, Bristol ..
Adams, Ist Surrey
Robinson, 16th Middlesex ..
Woodford, Isle of Man Volunteers ..
Davis, 2d Glocester
Smith, Midlothian Rifles
Rowe, Ist Devon ..
Miller, Bristol ..
Booth, 14th North Riding of Yorkshire
Scutt, 9th Wilts .. .. ..
Beasley, Ist Warwick ..
Stewart, 11th Middlesex
Plaskett, Civil Service (21st Middlesex) .. 18
Marriott, 27th West Riding of Yorkshire .. 18
Clarke, ditto 18
Ingledew, Bth North Riding of Yorkshire .. 18
Dickens, Ist Middlesex (Victoria) .. .. 18
Jenkins, 2d Glamorgan.. 17
Russell, 29th Kent .. 17
Murdoch, ditto .. 17

.. 20

.. 20
.. 20

.. 19

.. 19
.. 18

.. 18
.. 18

.. 18

West, 9th Essex..
Horner, 7th Dorset ..
Reed, Ist Cambridge ..
Greg, 7th Cheshire ..
Gostage, Ist Berks
Thomas, 4th West Riding of Yorkshire
Hitchcock, 7th Wilts ..
Green, 3d Somerset .. .. ..
Nosworthy, Oxford University
Morrison, 2d Renfrew
Davidson, llth Norfolk • • 17
Lawson, 32d Middlesex (Six Foot Guards) .. 17
Lord Bury, Civil Service
Milner, South Middlesex
Parr, 47th Lancashire

.. 17
.. 17

.. 17

.. 17

The preliminary shooting for the Prince of Wales'
prize was also continued throughout Saturday, but
the leading competitors for this are not yet distinctly
shown. For the extra prizes (all corners) there
are 230 competitors. The best shooting for these
on Saturday was Leece, Manchester Rifles, nine
points (with one shot more to fire at the same range);
Captain Eaton, 3d Manchester, 8 ; Ingram, Ist
Lanark, 7 ; Wylbie, Royal Artillery, 7 ; IV. Grutt,
Ist Berks, 7 ; and Colour-Sergeant Hall, 7. We
heard several complaints on Saturday as to the mis-
spelling of names, &c., in the lists of competitors
which have appeared in all the morning journals.
We can only state, as far as ourselves are concerned,
that we are in no degree responsible for these errors,
as our list is always copied verbatim from the official
returns made out on the ground by the association.
Of course, as these lists are necessarily written out
as rapidly as possible at the close of each day, it
is more than likely that the orthography of sur-
names may be open to improvement. The scores
however, are always accurately given, and the
Volunteers who are fortunate enough to carry off
the chief prizes need be under no apprehension that
their distinguished names will be inaccurately
given. Among the visitors to the ground on Satur-
day were the Duke D'Aumale,the Duke and Duchess
de Montpensier, Earl and Countess of Stamford,
Earl Tankerville, the Marquis of Abercorn, Vis-
count Eversley, Earl Ducie, the Duke of Suther-
land, Lord Valletort, Lord Trefusis, Lady Spencer,
Lady Bury, Lady Elcho, &c. The exhibition tent
containing the cups, &c., from which the winners
may, if so minded, select their prizes, was much
crowded. Is our notice of the magnificent works
collected here we inadvertently omitted to mention
that Messrs. Hunt and Roskell are among the ex-
hibitors, and their show of salvers, cups, epergnes,
&c., is eminently beautiful. A large refreshment
tent for ladies only has also been added to the
crowd of marquees. This is the venture of Mr.
Donald, of St. James's-hall, who has charge of the
refreshment department of the meeting, and whose
liberal arrangements in this respect it is but fair to
state have given unqualified satisfaction.
During Saturday very many Volunteers came
down to see the ground on which their great re-
view is to take place before the Duke of Cambridge
on Saturday next. As far as we could learn the
opinions then expressed were unanimously in favour
of the locality selected. If the statements made by
some of our contemporaries, that the dissatisfaction
among the Volunteers is deep and general at the
choice of Wimbledon-common, are founded in fact,
the discontent can only have arisen from a misun-
derstanding. It is said the Volunteers do not like
going to a place where the ground is boggy and
uneven, cut up by gravel pits and breast high with
furze; that the regiments to whom by the chance
manoeuvres of the day the good ground is assigned
can show off their drill and discipline all the more
so from the contrast their movements will afford
to those who can do ❑either and who will
find it sufficiently difficult to prevent their
order being broken up by the ground alto.
gether. Above all, the fact of there being only a
small station and one line of railway is especially
dwelt upon as being totally incapable of carrying
the 30,000 Volunteers in addition to the public, who
it is said, are certain to go down to see the display.
Now, if anything like 30,000 or even 20,000
Volunteers were expected these arguments would be
just and reasonable, and we should have no more
to say against them ; but it happens that on Satur-
day next only between 10,000 and 11,000 Volun-
teers are, at the very outside, expected to attend.
, This is. it is true, a large number to arriTe at a little •

station like Wimbledon ; 131 it some corps will
march down, several will ma ,rch back, and of the
general public a great maj(Jrity will either come
by road or by water to Pitney, which is close to
Wimbledon. As regards the nature of the ground
over Wimbledon-common, it is quite correct that
over that large space gravel-pits, bogs, ditches, and
furze may be found in abundance, but it is quite
untrue that any single one of these impediments is,
to be seen in the space chosen by the Committee
for the review. The whole extent of the spot se-
lected is, in fact, as level as a bowling green, and
that it is so is not surprising considering that the
Committee of the Rifle Association have been at the
expense of levelling and re-turfing the greater part
of it. One considerable tract, which is very level,
is still covered with furze, but the rooting up of'
hand every vestige of
tobis' commencesstru ctionwill beremo to-morrow,
before Saturday. Thet
review will commenceatt o'clock with the marching
past of all the corps immediately after the distribu-
tion of prizes. The latter takes place in front of a
grand stand, erected for the occasion, and capable
of accommodating 2,000 persons. On either side of
this will be the enclosure for carriages, and all along
the line of march, and to places commanding a full
view of the evolutions, the public will be admitted
on payment of ls. fee. If punctuality is en-
forced on the Volunteers who are to take
part in this, the review will be one of the
most brilliant affairs that have taken place since
the Queen's inspection in Hyde Park. If, on the
contrary, it only affords another conspicuous in-
stance of the want of punctuality which has too
often marked these gatherings, the success of the
display will be most seriously jeopardised. Those
who hold that at least one great annual review of
the Volunteers should take place on Epsom Downs
are very much in the right. We have always ad-
vocated that the Downs near that town offer facili-
lities for such a display which no other place in
England affords. With the two lines of railway,
each accustomed to take down 25,000 or 30,000 visi-
tors on aDerby day, any number might be conveyed,
and under proper management, such a military
fete at Epsom might soon be made to attract as
many by road and rail as the Derby itself. Never-
theless such a review might be given without at all
interfering with that so properly held by the Rifle
Association at the close of the annual competition.
Volunteers should recollect that the forthcoming
review on Saturday will, it is hoped, be a source of
profit to the association, which will go far towards
covering the heavy expenses of their meeting and
distribution of prizes. There are some truths which
are very unpleasant, but which it is, nevertheless,
necessary sometimes to tell. Among such is the
plain fact, that the Volunteers, as a body, have
almost utterly neglected to support the association,
at whose expense they are now competing for prizes,
and who, for the want of liberal support, have in-
curred a heavy loss by last year's meeting. The
association therefore has a direct claim on the at-
tendance of the effectives of all metropolitan corps.
The Volunteers can get up a dozen reviews at Epsom
if they like, but for the sake of their own esprit de
corps they should strain every nerve that that given
by the National Rifle Association should be one of
the best of its kind.

No regiment will be allowed to take part in the
manoeuvres that has not passed its official inspec-
tion before Colonel M'Murdo, and each corps must
be represented by at least four full companies. The
chief corps which are expected to be presen t are
the Victoria Rifles (Ist Middlesex), Hon. Artillery
Company, the London Irish, Inns of Court, Ist and
7th Surrey, City of London Brigade, South Mi ddle-
sex, North Middlesex, West Middlesex, London
Scottish, St. George's, the Paddington the Central
London, the 4th Middlesex (Islington), 2d Adminis-
trative Battalion, the Civil Service, the 6th and 'other
of the Tower Hamlets Regiments, the Deptford,
Woolwich, and Chatham Dockyard Battalionv, Ist
Middlesex Artillery, the 39th Middlesex (Fiuslyury),
and Lord Truro's Light Horse.