You know, if I were defending Merry Olde England from the Hun invasion, I would prefer a 99 over a Lee-Enfield - but for the Enfield's capability of being reloaded with stripper clips.
Or on the other hand, the best of both worlds would be to share a foxhole with a 99 and a stripper.
Another advantage is that the Enfield is a bolt action, I have read that the reason lever actions did not find much popularity for military use is that the action is hard to cycle while in the prone position, or with the gun laying on the edge of a fox hole or trench. The old long lever Martini actions had to be a real problem in the prone position - you would have to load them sideways and from the opposite side the lever was on, but I think at that time the British still though you should stand in a line out in the open to fight, in which case the lever would not be a problem and many probably would not live long enough to reload anyway.
