86 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



stuffed, from that to the gutty, and finally, through 

 the misdirected energy of our American cousins, to 

 the rubber core of the present day. No thought had 

 these ancient pioneers, of bunkers constructed to 

 catch a drive, or pots cunningly devised to punish 

 erratic brassy shots. The course had to be taken as 

 it was found, and the players were contented with 

 the bunkers or obstacles nature had provided, in the 

 positions they happened to occupy between the 

 natural plateaus of short grass where it was feasible 

 to putt straight, and where, therefore, the improvised 

 green and hole were necessarily placed. The clubs 

 these ancient heroes wielded were few in number, 

 often home made, and very different in shape and 

 structure from the latest inventions of the ingenious 

 professionals whose beautifully balanced, but perhaps 

 too numerous, implements fill the heavy bag under 

 which the modern caddie staggers round twice daily. 

 There was then a strong natural motive to prevent 

 the undue multiplication of clubs ; the player very 

 often had to carry them himself. The game in short 

 was made for the links, and not the links for the 

 game. There was certainly no need to manufacture 

 artificial bunkers. Whins, rushes, and bent grass 

 were left in the profusion provided by bountiful 

 nature, and yawning chasms of sand, unmarked by 

 flags or direction posts, seamed with their gaping 

 mouths the half-explored deserts. If there be still 

 any lover of nature anxious to hark back as far as 

 possible to primitive conditions, he may find them 

 at Machrins on the west coast of Colonsay. 



When I was there club and subscription did not 

 exist. The Misses M'Neill* joint tenants of the little 



