98 HAPPY HUNTING-GEOUNDS 



family a magistrate, perhaps even an Alderman or a 

 Deputy- Lieutenant respected in his station of life, 

 and looked up to as a worthy and representative 

 citizen, to stand up before a line of strangers, or still 

 worse, acquaintances, and endeavour to strike a ball 

 off the tee with a strange and unfamiliar weapon, 

 with the moral certainty that his effort will meet 

 with most indifferent success. As he stands waiting 

 his turn, two lithe and active young men, perhaps his 

 clerks, his constituents, or his juniors at the bar, send 

 long drives skimming towards the flag. His own turn 

 comes at last, and waiting to follow him is a hero who, 

 it is darkly hinted, has got into the semi-final in the 

 amateur championship, or stood up at a third with the 

 redoubtable Braid himself. Still the ordeal must be 

 gone through sooner or later ; but when the feat that 

 looked so easy has been attempted and the topped 

 ball has trickled into the nearest furze bush, the 

 neophyte feels inclined to apologise, first to his own 

 caddie, and then to all the waiting golfers collected 

 round the tee. 



There need be no such discouraging experience 

 if he will only pay a visit to Colonsay. There 

 he may top, foozle, or even miss his tee shot, " far 

 from the madding crowd," with the pleasant con- 

 sciousness that he is delaying no one, and that his 

 caddie, if he has one, has no standard of criticism by 

 which to measure the degree of his inefficiency. Of 

 course he must take someone to play with who has 

 some nation of the game to initiate him into the 

 elements a son, a nephew with expectations, or an 

 old friend for he will find no professional to torture 

 his limbs into constrained attitudes at half a crown 



