2-995-922 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The National Rifle Association Prize Medal, 1860. 'This medal...was executed by Mr. G. G. Adams...The medal has been greatly admired both for its design and execution. On the obverse are two figures - one of which represents an English archer of the olden time, from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century; and the other a rifleman of the present period, aimed with his still deadlier weapon. The use of the longbow and the clothyard-shaft was once the pastime of the English people, and the terror of England's foes; and it is the hope of the National Rifle Association, by establishing rifle-shooting as a national pastime, to make the rifle what the bow was in the days of the Plantagenets, the familiar weapon of those who stand forth in the defence of their country. Beneath the base line are the words "Sit perpetuum." The reverse has a wreath of bays, within which is the inscription "National Rifle Association." Two of these medals, in gold, were presented by Lord Elcho to her Majesty and the Prince Consort, after the first shot had been fired by the Queen last Monday on Wimbledon Common. A gold and a silver medal are to be given as prizes to the volunteers in the present rifle-shooting contest'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.