From the gate near Archerfield House, which opens on the links, the view is lovely in the extreme. It is "nature unadorned " and full of the simple beauty and pathetic suggestiveness of Scottish landscape. A great moorland - like expanse, covered with whins, heather, and bents, and broken with sandy bunkers and wandering paths, stretches away to the eastward. Acres of greensward lie between, and give ample space for the playing of golf. On the left is the sea, with the rugged Fidra rock and lighthouse, close in. The eastern horizon is fringed with a dark pine wood, and the huge, pointed cone of Berwick Law looks down, over the distant fields, upon the castle and church of Dirleton. The song of the lark and the scream of the plover fill the air, and the extraordinary variety of grasses, moss, heather, whins, and sand, scattered amongst the greensward, make a colour-picture of surpassing beauty. Near the sea, and in a desolate part, is a wooden chalet, used as a teahouse, or for luncheon parties, by the occupants of Archerfield House, and this building and its surroundings suggested to Louis Stevenson his strange story of "The Pavilion on the Links." The golf at Archerfield is excellent. The holes are short but full of incident, and the putting greens are perfect.

Leaving Archerfield, on the way to North Berwick, the last of our string of six greens, the road passes through the village of Dirleton. As one approaches the village from the west, down a steep brae, the cottages on each side, corbie gabled, with "shoppies" giving on the street, and peeps of "kailyards" at the back, have all the characteristics of Scotland. But a little further on, the road opens on a wide and beautiful village green, surrounded by red-tiled cottages with flowers in every window, and as trim gardens as can be found anywhere in England. The huge ruins of Dirleton Castle, full of memories of the warlike Des Vaux and the fighting Bishop of Durham, enclose the village green on the southern side.

A mile or two more, by a straight and somewhat barren road, lands the golfer in North Berwick, under the shadow of the Law.

North Berwick has more than maintained the lead which it gave, in the revival of golf, to the rest of East Lothian about thirty years ago. The royal burgh - an honourable distinction which, as a dependency of the Tantallon Douglasses, it obtained so long ago as 1373 - has been fortunate of late years, in having public-spirited and far-seeing men to guide its affairs, and the names of Dall, Brodie, and Whitecross will ever be associated with the rise and prosperity of the ancient burgh.

The place indeed was bound to grow and prosper, although thirty years ago the most sanguine could hardly have dared to predict its present flourishing condition. Its bracing climate, and its situation at the most picturesque point of the shores of Forth, its accessibility to Edinburgh, which the construction of the railway from Drem still further increased, and, above all, its fine golf links, have united in making the town one of the most popular and fashionable seaside places in the kingdom.

There are several golf clubs in North Berwick, but of these only two have a local habitation, namely, the North Berwick New Club, an offshoot of an older institution founded as far back as 1832, and the Tantallon Club, instituted in 1853. There is also a first-rate ladies' golf course, situated near the Marine Hotel, and the greens are open to strangers on payment of a daily or weekly fee. Formerly, there were only nine holes at North Berwick, but in 1877, the course was extended westwards, and the full number of eighteen holes was obtained. These continued in use till 1895, when the ever-increasing stream of golfers, coupled with the shortness and narrowness of the course, rendered a still further extension imperative. Many golfers, who knew and loved the unique and sporting character of this original 18-hole course, were loth to see it interfered with. It has been called flukey and tricky, but there never was a course like it for teaching accuracy, both in approaching, and in driving off the tee. Fortunately many of the old holes have been preserved in their integrity, in the new and extended course, and at many of the new holes, the golfer who remembers things as they were, has at least the satisfaction of playing over the old ground, and with perhaps less danger to life and limb. The wood at the present fourth hole used to stretch some 30 or 40 yards nearer the sea, and this made the course at that point dangerously narrow. Beyond the Eel Burn, which was the turning-point in the old course, new ground for five holes has been obtained, so that now the far hole is almost on the confines of Archerfield. This additional ground has made it possible to lengthen many of the old holes, and the new course, in point of length at any rate, yields to few other courses in the kingdom. Its total length is now 6,095 yards, and whereas, under the old arrangement, at least eight of the holes were within reach of the tee, and many of those but iron or cleek shots, there is now no hole under 200 yards, and the shortest can only be reached by the very longest drivers. The new ground, though it certainly has been the means of greatly relieving the congestion of play on the green, is rather flat, and the holes are somewhat monotonous in character. They are improving daily, however, and the whole course, both as an all-round test of golf and as a charming and healthful resort, is unsurpassed in Scotland.

At Dunbar, still further along the coast, good golf can be had on a shorter but excellent course, and further inland, at Haddington - the birthplace of John Knox, and where golf has been played for centuries - there is also a 9-hole course, about a mile and a half from the town.

The golfer who visits the Lothians must not omit to visit the classic green of Musselburgh. Although the departure of the Honourable Company and the transference of the championship to Muirfield, have diminished its prestige, and though its nine holes are now sadly overcrowded, Musselburgh links remains a grand test of a golfer's capacity. As at St. Andrews, the whins have almost vanished, but the ancient bunkers remain, and, to the golfer's mind, the place is hallowed by association and redolent of historic play and players. If the visitor avoids Saturdays and Thursdays, he will not find much difficulty in getting a comfortable game. Some excellent specimens of the old-fashioned Scottish caddie are still to be found at Musselburgh.