In the annals of “Best” firearms, Holland & Holland holds an unambiguous place: builder of the world’s finest double rifles.
For more than a century, dangerous game hunters have prepared for their great unknowns by trekking to Mayfair in London’s West End. Their destination is more than a retail outlet; it is a gunmaking shrine. Since The Field rifle trials of 1883 when acclaimed regulator William Gilbert Froome shot ALL of the winning entries, Holland & Holland has been the “go to” gunmaker for rifles in every caliber.
Double rifles originated with red stag stalkers in the Scottish Highlands during the 19th century. Before that, deer hunters favored highly accurate, single-barreled muzzleloaders, but these required careful loading for optimal ballistics, which, of course, took time. (“A minute and a half, or two minutes,” according to Colonel Henry Beaufoy writing in Scloppetaria published in 1808.)
If a botched shot required immediate follow-up, a sport might grab his ghillie’s rifle. A more tolerable solution was advanced in the 1830s and ’40s when double-barreled rifles were introduced.
During the 1850s, Holland’s great rival James Purdey developed a rifle of about 40-bore that he called “Express Train,” which became de rigueur for Scottish stalkers. Fast-advancing technology signaled the gun’s obsolescence, but the term “Express” survived to describe a rifle with long, point-blank range and low trajectory. The difficulty of “regulating,” or converging bullet impact from each barrel at a single point, required real skill. Enter William Froome, who consolidated Holland’s already considerable reputation by meeting the challenge.
William Froome was born in rural Hampshire in 1841. At age 14, he traveled to London to begin a gunmaking apprenticeship with Harris Holland at 9 King Street. He became a director of the firm in 1898 on the strength of his celebrated abilities as a double rifle regulator. He died in 1905.
William Gilbert Froome was apprenticed to Harris Holland beginning in 1855 at the age of 14. He grew into a bear of a man, his stature uniquely suited to withstanding the stiff recoil served up by the big elephant guns of the Victorian era.
“All the shots were taken by Messrs. Holland’s assistant,” reported The Field, “whom we have already described as A1 and capable of bearing even the sledgehammer blows of the 4-bore loaded with 14 drams of powder, although he was driven back fully a yard from the rest . . .”
Land & Water, a rival periodical, noted that Froome shot Holland’s rifles idiosyncratically, “ . . . that is with both eyes open.”
This ad appeared in The Sportsman’s Vade-Mecum for the Himalayas, published 1891.
Here, it’s worth pausing to consider just what The Field trials were and why they were so important at the time. In the 19th century, the United Kingdom occupied a position in the world not dissimilar to the United States now. Britannia ruled the waves and by the end of Victoria’s reign, the U.K. controlled more than 14 million square miles of territory and produced about 30 percent of the world’s total industrial output. It was an epoch when vast wealth was galvanized to go hunting, shooting and fishing in Africa and other continents.
But change was afoot. Breechloaders were replacing muzzleloaders, smokeless propellants were replacing black powder and compressed fluid steel barrels were replacing Damascus. In 1853, a magazine appeared that had immediate appeal for those souls who shot, hunted and fished. That magazine was The Field, and one of its earliest editors was John Henry Walsh.
In 1856, Walsh published a Manual of British Rural Sports dealing with every stripe of field sports. During the same year, he joined the staff of The Field and became its editor at the close of 1857. He fox-hunted, coursed greyhounds and trained his own setters and pointers, but it was shooting that preoccupied him. Walsh realized he could effectively increase circulation by initiating a series of gun trials that addressed the concerns of those chaps confused by the many changes brought about by gunmakers. He had lost the forefinger and thumb of his left hand as the result of a burst gun-barrel so the safety of evolving shotguns was a primary concern.
His first trial pitted established muzzleloaders against recently developed breechloaders. Though not entirely successful, it did pave the way for a subsequent trial assessing choke bore guns against true cylinders.
The left sidelock of this Royal Deluxe .700 features an engraving of lions pulling down a Cape buffalo. Photograph by Matthew Brown photography for Holland & Holland.
In 1883, Walsh organized the trials to demonstrate the accuracy of Express rifles and to ascertain by measurement the height of bullet trajectories in different calibers.
Holland & Holland put a tidy sum behind preparing entries in all 10 categories. The classes were rook rifles, double .400, .450, .500 and .577 express rifles; double 12-, 10-, 8- and 4-bore rifles and a 12-smooth bore. Holland & Holland won every event.
Afterwards, the firm engraved all its rifle tubes with: “HOLLAND & HOLLAND 98 NEW BOND STREET. LONDON. WINNERS OF ALL THE “FIELD” RIFLE TRIALS LONDON.”
Several notable rifle-builders, such as Alexander Henry of Edinburgh and George Gibbs of Bristol, declined to participate in the trails, no doubt intimidated by Holland & Holland’s reputation in general and William Froome’s prowess in particular.
This .470 Royal Deluxe showcases an acanthus leaf pattern with the flower heads in gold.
“It was, in fact, in 1883, when Mr. Walsh held a rifle trial in London that Mr. Froome became celebrated in the eyes of sportsmen and especially those who were fortunate enough to stalk the red stag in Scotland, or invade the Indian or African solitudes in search of big game,” wrote the editor of Land & Water. “We do not mean to say that Holland and Holland could not build a rifle before that date as well as now; but what we do say is that the phenomenal success of their rifles at the trials in question set a higher standard for sportsmen and gunmakers alike than that which had satisfied both before.”
A full 70 years later, the winners continued to be celebrated when R. N. Rose wrote: “Messrs. Holland & Holland scored an all-round triumph.”
In the wake of The Field rifle trial, Holland & Holland found itself at the perfect confluence of supply and demand. Its prestige from the trials coincided with the passion for safari. H&H introduced the “Royal,” a simple but strong sidelock action that rarely got out of whack. It was the perfect platform for Froome’s abilities. In its double rifle incarnation, the Royal would become immensely popular. When Theodore Roosevelt took one on safari in 1909, he said of it: “I do not think there exists a better weapon for heavy game.”
.600 Nitro Express Royal Deluxe Double Rifle.
In the late-Victorian era, 12-, 10-, 8- and 4-bores were considered big bores and express rifles as medium. But over the decades and with the development of improved propellants, Express rifles performed at the levels of the big bores, which slowly became obsolete. With the addition of the .600 Nitro Express (circa 1900), which developed more force than the 4-bore black powder bullet, the African/Indian battery was complete.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to see and handle just such a Holland & Holland battery from the gilded era. The rifles were built for a Boston Brahmin named Nathaniel Cushing Nash and had made their way into the collection of a multiple Academy Awards winner who preferred to remain anonymous.
A .500 (three-inch) Royal de Luxe double rifle signed by Belgium’s late great departed engraver “P. H. Grifnee.” Photo courtesy Andrew Orr
for Holt Auctioneers.
The rifles, which had never been shot, brought to mind something Holland & Holland’s old technical director, Russell Wilkin, had told me years ago when I asked him to identify the vintage years for building fine British firearms.
“It can only be 1890 to 1910. If I was forced to choose ten years within those twenty, I would plump for 1895 to 1905.”
This flight of double rifles changed hands again recently and I asked the new owner the same question as I’d asked Russell Wilkin. He told me the best British guns and rifles were being built right now!
L-R: R. J. Cunninghame, Kermit Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Heller and Hugh H. Heatley on an African safari in May of 1919. Prominent in the President’s arsenal was a .500/.450 H&H double rifle made for him in 1908. photograph: library of congress.
During the gilded age, a generation of sportsmen was inspired to sail off to the desert of Sudan or the mountains of Afghanistan in search of where the wild things were. Their experiences of “dropping savage wretches in their tracks” or “rolling big brutes over” produced an entire literature of daring-do that survives to this day.
One of the most significant additions to the canon was African Rifles and Cartridges by John “Pondoro” Taylor. In his 1948 book, Taylor wrote: “No single-barreled rifle can ever be so well-balanced as an equally good double, just because there is not the same concentration of weight between the hands with the former as with the latter. With an ill-balanced gun, you can’t take snap-shots with anything like the accuracy you can with a well-balanced one.
A classic example of a Royal double rifle from the gilded age. From the celebrated Nash collection. Photo courtesy Morphy’s Auctions.
“When tackling the big fellows at close quarters, balance is far more important than accuracy,” he noted.
After World War II, as Britain lost her colonies to independence, taking on the big beasties fell foul of fashion. The .600 remained in production until 1956 when IMI Kynoch loaded the last batch of 2,000 cartridges. In 1975, Holland & Holland began building the “last .600 bore” double rifle, assuming big game hunting was on its last legs. Surprisingly, a huge number of buyers showed interest and the right to buy the rifle had to be raffled off. It eventually went to a gentleman from the Midwest.
Holland & Holland .470 Royal Deluxe. Photograph courtesy holland & holland.
Years later, when dangerous game hunting once more began to gain traction, Holland & Holland was approached by another American collector who asked for a .600. But because the company had committed to the “last” double in this caliber, the firm declined. The client then suggested something stronger and the .700 was born. Today, the .700 Nitro Express is Holland & Holland’s largest propriety cartridge and the world’s largest dangerous game double rifle.
Holland & Holland belongs to a powerful secular trinity of London gunmakers that includes James Purdey & Sons and Boss & Co. Yet neither of their rivals can match Holland’s reputation for building big double rifles.
I asked auctioneer Gavin Gardiner, who has been around fine British guns and rifles since he was child, if the Holland & Holland legend had substance.
“I believe so,” he said. “Holland & Holland cemented their reputation as the best builder of double rifles, and were also the leading caliber inventor. They have always innovated and been at the forefront. They have developed calibers, rifles, and in their Royal, have perhaps the ultimate double rifle. Westley Richards is the only other maker to challenge for the crown.”
The decorative pistol grip cap on this Royal .700 features the Dark Continent in gold. Photograph by Matthew Brown photography for Holland & Holland.
David McKay Brown, the great Scottish gunmaker, concurs. “Holland & Holland is number one for double rifles,” he told me in a recent telephone conversation.
So if you intend to shoot dangerous game, take a double rifle.
As Holland & Holland’s Managing Director Daryl Greatrex told me: “Without doubt, when hunting dangerous game, the ability to fire two consecutive shots, accurately, from a heavy caliber double rifle is the best insurance policy available to any sportsman.”
Bloody well right, too!
This article originally appeared in the 2019 November/December issue of Sporting Classics magazine.