Nottinghamshire Rifle Association

The Princess of Wales will today open the new ranges of the National Rifle Association at Bisley. It was on a brilliant July day, thirty years ago that at Wimbledon the Queen started the National Rifle Association upon its career by firing the first shot, and making a bull's-eye on, of course, the old target. Everything was that memorable day favourable to good shooting, and the Whitworth rifle which her Majesty discharged had been carefully sighted during the afternoon before being finally aimed and placed in the rest from which it was fired. The Queen's target is still preserved, and the official and unimpeachable record of the shot to be fired by the Princess of Wales today will, no doubt, be placed alongside it. The distance at which the shot is to be fired is a hundred yards greater than that at which her Majesty discharged the rifle in 1860, but, on the other hand, the more modern weapon is decidedly the better of the two. Thirty years ago the Wimbledon Meeting lasted but one week. It was on the Monday afternoon that the Queen opened it, and a few shots were fired on that day. Business, however, began in earnest on Tuesday. At Bisley gun fire on Monday morning will find the officials at their posts and the competitors crowding the ranges. Had today's ceremonial been deferred until Monday it would have been almost impossible to get through the business of the meeting in the fortnight now allotted to it. It is to be hoped that Bisley will be as successful as has been Wimbledon, and that it may do as much for British rifle shooting.

THE "NEW WIMBLEDON."
OPENING OF THE BISLEY RANGES
FROM OUR OWN REPORTER

At five o'clock on Saturday afternoon last her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales inaugurated the new ranges of the National Rifle Association at Bisley Common, near Brookwood, by scoring a "three o'clock" bulls-eye upon a target 500 yards distant with a bullet discharged from the new service magazine rifle, the Lea Mitford, by a recently-invented explosive which, it is expected, will supercede gunpowder ere long. It was a notable occasion, this opening of the "New Wimbledon" upon another Surrey common than the one where, 30 years ago, the Queen of England, accompanied by the Prince Consort and their eldest son, fired the first shot from a Whitworth rifle, which also registered a bulls-eye, and was made much of. There can be no doubt about it that the riflemen of England leave their old camping ground at WimbIedon with feelings of regret. A veteran Robin Hood, surveying the scene around from the summit of the Clock Tower Hill on Bisley Common Last Saturday, declared with a tone of contempt in his voice, that the new campaigning ground is "not a patch on Wimbledon.". Probably he missed the famous windmill from the landscape and did not quite appreciate the new order of things which obtain at Bisley. But when the Bisley site is completely equipped, which it is not at present, the change of habitat will be approved, and the verdict of the shooting men will be favourable.

At all events a change from Wimbledon was inevitable. Improved firearms, new and more powerful explosives, and the desirability of testing the skill of riflemen at longer ranges than before made it imperative to leave Wimbledon. This was a great blow to the National Rifle Association, who had secured property in buildings and butts of the value of £50,000, which became for the most part practically valueless upon removing to the new site. The savings of 30 years, some £14,000, have been spent in constructing similar property at Bisley, and £7,000 has been raised by public subscription, but it is estimated that another £30,000 will be required to place the new Wimbledon in as good a position as the old place.

It is claimed for Bisley that the men will shoot down the ranges upon more equal terms than at Wimbledon and that the light will be better, but that remains to be seen. It was the expressed opinion of a crack Robin Hood shot on Saturday evening that the more sheltered ranges at Bisley would be all in favour of the shooting of the Nottingham men, so that they will enter upon the contest on the present occasion more hopefully than ever before. There are 24 long-range targets, 16 of which are available up to 1,100 yards; next comes a long range of 90 targets available up to 600 yards; at another place 20 targets available up to 600 yards; a range of 20 targets available up to 300 yards; and two running deer and running men targets. The markers' mantlets, instead of being dark, unpleasant earthy places, are at Bisley a long, light, commodious gallery, with a tram-line running the whole length of the ranges at which the first and second stages of the Queen's will be fired. The natural situation of the ground is satisfactory, the slope of the common providing for its effective drainage, while at the back of the butts the Chobham Ridges rise gradually 200 feet, thus making the ranges quite safe.

It is further from London than Wimbledon was – thirty miles on the London and South Western Railway, but the journey from Waterloo past Surbiton and Sandown Park, past Woking with its huge female convict prison to Brookwood, and thence along the branch line constructed by the London and South-Western Company, running to the heart of the camp, is interesting, and only occupies about an hour. Bisley is not far from Aldershot, and a couple of miles away the white tents of the Guards' encampment at Pirbright are discernible. The place is decidedly picturesque, and the regimental camps are conveniently situated near the enclosure, with the staff quarters nestling in the lee of a pretty bungalow erected for Lord Wantage, the camp commandant. The Robin Hoods' tents are in the vicinity, in a front row of the members' enclosure, and when the camp gardeners have done their work, this part of the common will doubtless present a charming appearance. There is a large attendance in camp, numbering 600 more than at Wimbledon last year, and the entries for the various events are proportionately larger. The Royal Jersey Militia indicate their whereabouts by planting tall sticks of Jersey cabbage around their tents, and a distinct novelty this time is the presence of a team of the Cape Mounted Rifles, who are with the London Rifle Brigade. The Canadians have once more sent a team, and the camp is gay with bright uniforms, hundreds of regulars from Pirbright and Aldershot "looking in" to fraternise with their comrades of the reserved forces at Bisley.

The opening ceremony was very interesting, and was largely attended, many of the distinguished people who had been attending Mr. Stanley's wedding at Westminster Abbey running down to the rifle ranges afterwards. The Prince and Princess of Wales, left Waterloo in a special train at three o'clock. The Princess wore a gown of figured material, with a tight-fitting light jacket and small hat, while her two daughters, the Princesses Victoria and Maud of Wales, were attired in fawn coloured costumes, relieved by dark brown velvet. General Viscount Wolseley and Lady Wolseley, together with the Hon. F. Wolseley, Sir Redvers and Lady Buller, the Duke and Duchess of Westminster, the Marquis and Marchioness of Granby and others occupied seats in the Royal train. At the petite branch station on Bisley Common, Lord Wantage, in the uniform of a Brigadier General, and Lady Wantage, who dispenses such magnificent hospitality at the "Cottage" during the fortnight that shooting lasts, received the Royal party who had come down to be their guests.

Then followed a most interesting ceremonial. Upon a rest in front of No. 12 target on the long butt, and at 500 yards distance, had been fixed a Lee-Mitford magazine file, which had been aimed and sighted by Sir Henry Halford, the Leicestershire crack shot. Sir F. Abel, the inventor, then handed up a cartridge of his new explosive, with which Major Lathom, R.A., loaded the rifle, and then at the sound of a bugle the Princess of Wales, pulling a silken cord, fired the weapon. There was hearty cheer when the shot went, followed by another demonstration a moment later when a bull's eye was signalled from the marking mantlet. Over the target a carton had been hung which the bullet had penetrated, and in a very short time this was brought to the firing point by Mr. Honey, the clerk of the works, when it was found that the shot fired by the Princess was within an inch of the exact centre of the target. The Princess was asked to accept the carton to hang beside that which is in possession of the Queen bearing the bullet mark made when her Majesty in 1860 fired the first shot out of the of the Whitworth rifle which opened Wimbledon. This the Princess smilingly consented to do, and the ceremonial was over. The Royal party returned amidst another enthusiastic demonstration to the pavilion, where light refreshment was taken, and about six o'clock the Prince and Princess and their children returned to town.