The Lovers' Gait is "the lovers' way," and the name has been adopted because at this point we are on what was known as the Lovers' Walk long before Gleneagles was a golf course. Here the youthful couples of the district were wont to wander as lovers do; here was a centre of tender associations and happy memories, so the old name has been retained, as it is right it should be.

I'm gaun to meet my ain lad,

An' tak' the lovers' gait, My mistress is a thochtless jaud,

To think that I could wait, It's wearin' on to seeven o'clock,

An' I daurna be late, I'm gaun to meet my ain lad,

An' tak' the lovers' gait.

Associations and memories no less happy are its possession to-day with the added flair of keen sport that does not wound the defeated rival so keenly as in affairs of the heart. It is an exhilarating hole to play and exemplifies the old saying.

the course of true love never did run smooth "you have to drive over several yards of rough before you gain the fairway. One of the most beautiful of Scottish love lyrics, by the way, brings in the term "gait" finely

O dinna think Bonnie Lassie

I 'm gaun leave you, I'll tak' .a stick into my hand

And come again and see you.

Far's the gait ye hae to gang,

Dark's the nicht an' eerie; O stay this ae nicht wi' your love,

An' ditina gang an' leave me.

Another verse from Scots ballad lore suggests the dangers that may still be met at the Lovers' Gait:--

I gaed a waefu' gait yestreen,

A gait, 1 fear, I'll dearly rue; 1 gat my death frae twa sweet e'en,

Twa lovely e'en o' bonnie blue, "Twas not her golden ringlets bright,

Her lips like roses wet wi' dew, Her heaving bosom lily white;

It was her e'en sac bonnie blue.

Gang yer ain gait " is a well know n Scots phrase meaning go your own way," and in the same sense " to tak' the gait " means to depart, and so having holed out you " tak' the gait."