SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



used quarries, roads, and stone walls ; and the 

 best time for play is in the spring and autumn 

 months. 



In 1892 was founded the Isle of Purbeck 

 Golf Club, whose links are two miles from 

 Swanage on the north side of the road to Stud- 

 land. This very hilly nine-hole course has a 

 length of about a mile and a half; the hazards 

 are hedges, gorse, ponds, with some artificial 

 bunkers. 



The Lyme Regis Golf Club was initiated in 

 1893. Its nine-hole course is 500 ft. above the 

 sea on the cliffs between Lyme and Charmouth. 

 Golf had already been played for some time on 

 Lenthay Common, near Sherborne, when in 

 1894 the course of the Blackmore Vale Club 

 was opened a mile and a half to the north of 

 the town. It was laid out on undulating ground 

 on either side of a road which with its high 

 hedges formed a hazard at more than one of the 

 nine holes. The club has recently gone back to 

 links on Lenthay Common. 



The Ashley Wood Club has a down course 

 of nine holes two miles from Blandford. It 

 was opened in 1896. The turf is good, and 

 gorse is the principal hazard. The old Dor- 

 chester Club, founded in the same year, has now 

 amalgamated with the Weymouth Club under 

 the name of the Weymouth, Dorchester, and 

 County Club. The course of eighteen holes is 

 on Came Down two miles from the county 

 town. The hazards are furze, chalk-pits, tumuli, 

 a pond, and some ditches. 



The great course of the Dorset Club, opened 

 in 1898, is the outcome of a prodigious expendi- 

 ture of money, labour, and ingenuity. It lies 

 about midway between Wimborne and Poole at 

 Broadstone, partly on the eastern edge of the 

 great heath that, under different names, extends 

 from Corfe Mullen to Moreton, and partly in 

 the park of Merley Hall. On the wild and 

 hilly heath portion Tom Dunn, who designed 

 the course at the direction of Lord Wimborne, 

 laid out the first six and the last four holes. 

 The thick growth of ling, gorse, and fern which, 

 rising shoulder high, covered the sandy hill-sides, 

 was cut away, bogs were drained, and turf was 

 laid, tees were levelled, vast putting greens were 

 made and bunkers built, and after years of work 

 ten magnificent holes, of which it is not easy to 

 find the equal on any inland course, appeared. 

 It has been said by a judicious critic of 

 Broadstone that if the vast ditch and rampart 

 hazards were replaced by artfully arranged pot 

 bunkers this could be made one of the finest 

 courses in Europe, and many may be found to 

 agree with this dictum so far as it applies to the 

 holes at the beginning and end of the round. 

 But the long seventh and the five holes in the 

 park are less enjoyable. 



The course is 3^ miles round, and the long 

 carries required from the tees form what is 

 perhaps the most marked characteristic of this ex- 

 cellent course, where the tees are like putting greens 

 and the greens themselves of lavish dimensions. 

 Meetings are held in the spring and autumn. 



In compiling this bketch of Sport in Dorset the 

 writer has endeavoured to obtain an accurate ac- 

 count of each description of sport both of the 

 past and present and each detail has been verified. 



His best thanks are due to masters of 

 hounds, who have most courteously given end- 

 less information, and each kennel has been 

 visited by the writer. With regard to shooting 

 some difficulties have arisen, and very few shoot- 

 ing men in the county have supplied either 

 information generally or statistics in particular. 



For the history of racing, the stud farms and 

 training establishments have been visited, and at 

 these the utmost assistance has been given. The 

 writer wishes to express his gratitude more 

 especially to Captain Eustace Radclyffe, who has 

 not only supplied a great deal of general infor- 

 mation, but has himself written an article on 

 falconry for this work ; to the Lady Theodora 

 Guest for the loan of many interesting documents 

 bearing on hunting ; and to the Editor of the 

 Sportsman for racing particulars. 



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