The origin of golf seems to belong to the category of those events that are "wrapt in mistery." If we are to believe hoary tradition, what is now an absorbing pastime, attracting its hundreds of thousands and sustaining a great industry, is traceable to the restlessness of a Scottish shepherd, who found the dolce far niente a weariness to the flesh and gave expression to his activity by knocking white pebbles from point to point with his crook. The somewhat amorphous character of this diversion did not apparently long remain if we are to place any reliance on the old definition of "putting of little balls into little holes with instruments very ill-adapted to that purpose"; suffice it to say that golf enjoyed a popularity in the eighteenth century which called down the condemnation of the Scots Parliament in the form of a prohibition of the game (in company with "fut-ball"). One cannot, however, trace in the writings of those days any scathing references such as have within recent memory been made to the devotees of cricket and football.

The playing of golf was, however, so grave a rival to the practice of archery that the question of national defence obtruded itself to the temporary suspension of the former, but under the Royal patronage of the "most high and mighty Prince James" and his sons, Henry and Charles, the game was freed from this untoward restriction. English golf is said to have begun at Blackheath in the reign of the said James, but no authentic record exists of any match south of the Tweed until the year 1758, at Molesly Hurst. In 1864 the Westward Ho! links were laid out on the superb Northam Burrows. Hoylake and Wimbledon followed; then the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge. But it was not till 1890 that the game took any serious hold upon the English public, while to-day it is estimated that over 300,000 persons are regular players, spending between them annually four millions sterling in the upkeep of courses and the necessary apparatus. In the days of the early Stuarts golf clubs were called "bands," and the balls were made of leather stuffed with feathers. Golf might well have been "the sport of kings" when these balls cost about four shillings apiece, and were naturally ill-suited to withstand the misguided attacks of iron-headed implements or the ravages of wet weather. The introduction of gutta-percha, however, both considerably cheapened the ball and increased its durability. At its first appearance the new type of ball presented a condition of absolute smoothness, which experience soon proved to militate against its flight. But accident, as in the case of many useful inventions, revealed a process which both removed this drawback and contributed greater length and accuracy. "None but in the iron age" could have made the discovery that a few "hacks" could import a virtue (hitherto unsuspected) to its soaring flight. Henceforward, the balls were "nicked," at first, with the sharp chisel edge of a hammer; then a mould was devised from which the ball emerged with concentric rings or bosses. The tyro of to-day, however, scarcely knows this ball; it has, one might say, almost entirely been superseded by an American invention known as the "rubber-core." This consists of a nucleus of elastic thread, wound very tightly in globular form, of about the size of an ordinary marble and encased in a shell of vulcanised gutta-percha. The advantage claimed (and justified by experience) is a longer flight, and though its price is double that of the old "gutty," it is now in almost universal use. Experience has also shown that with proper treatment its life is considerably more than double that of its displaced proto-type, and the clubs certainly enjoy a longer life with its use. The crank has, of course, not been idle during the recent years of ball and club development, and some curious results of constructive genius have appealed to the suffrages of the golfing public. What may be called the "facet" ball claimed, by virtue of its numerous plane surfaces, to discount the "fiery" character of the putting-green; another seductively invited attention by reason of its liquid core, while yet another substituted air for water (or its equivalent).

Gelatine has now appeared as a rival to the rubber pellet and seems to have gained some favour; but is it to be wondered at that the ball whose interior resounded with the tink-ling of a bell and warned the hole of its approach did not survive its infancy? For the "excited core" ball the inventor claims that its composition secures a greatly increased resilience with corresponding increase in the length of the stroke. But when it comes to approaching and putting it is found that you can have too much of a good thing, and so special practice is necessary with a ball of such decided individuality.

Clubs do not appear to have shown any marked variations in essentials. There are, of course, many devices for producing extra length of drive, and the marriage of different pairs of clubs has produced such implements as mashie-niblicks and putting-cleeks, while the "jigger," a long-faced cross between the mashie and iron, is by no means an unpopular club. The "Schenectady" putter had a great vogue for some time after the winning of the amateur championship by Mr Travis, the U.S.A. player, and some golfers have essayed to be pioneers by introducing putters of the croquet-mallet and billiard-cue type. Another club, whose virtue has not been its own reward, was one of the multum in parvo variety. By the manipulation of a screw in the socket the head could be adjusted to dif-ferent angles, but it is possible that the open disdain of the caddies, who saw their inclusion in the ranks of the unemployed thereby fore-shadowed, coupled with the apathy and pusil-lanimity of conservative players, contributed largely to its relegation to Limbo. But all said and done, the introduction of rubber-cored balls and long-handled clubs has not deprived the game of any of those exasperating features that constitute its chief charm and contribute to the infinite variety which remains unaffected by the ravages of age or dispiriting influences of custom.