3-066-037 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches at the Wimbledon Rifle Meeting, 1881. 'Firing at the butts; 2 and 3. Improved caps and sights; 4. Repose amid the rifles; 5. To be kept dry; 6. Not a Member of the Club; 7. Quiet evening hour...The shooting positions of the competing marksmen, though recommended for steadiness in aiming and firing the rifle, have not a very military appearance to the unaccustomed spectator. But they might possibly be adopted by a skirmishing party of light infantry, in real warfare, without the accessories of the butts or targets, and of the Umpires and recording officer, comfortably seated under his umbrella, in the foreground of this view. The Sketch of "Markers at Rest," with their bodies and limbs helplessly sprawling on the turf, beats a painful resemblance to some views taken upon an actual battle-field after the fighting was done. But the queer effects of a variety of accidental or customary doings, in the tented field of suburban encampment and martial exercise, have not escaped the notice of observant and mildly satirical artists. Rest and "refreshments," as might be expected during the hot weather of these fine days in July, occupy their due place, to say the least of it, in the subjects here delineated'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.