4 'ROYAL AND ANCIENT' 



Mr. Everard traces some of the peculiar terms used 

 in golf, whereof the etymology has puzzled many 

 thinkers, to a Dutch origin. Thus he suggests that 

 ' stymie ' represents ' stuit mij ' (pronounced ' styt my '), 

 which is good Dutch for ' it stops me.' ' Tuitje,' pro- 

 nounced ' toytee,' a small heap, appears as the modern 

 'tee,' and 'to putt' probably comes from the Dutch 

 ' put,' a hole. To putt out and to hole out, therefore, 

 are exact synonyms. 



All this, however, and much more of the same sort, 

 is but the garnishing to Mr. Everard's pi&ce de rtsist- 

 ance the chronicle of the ' Koyal and Ancient.' The 

 society took its rise from a meeting of two-and-twenty 

 noblemen and gentlemen, who being admirers of the 

 ' ancient and healthful exercise of the Golf/ did, on 14th 

 May 1754, draft formal articles and laws regulating 

 play. It is to this momentous document, occupying 

 several pages of the minute-book, still preserved in 

 the Club, that the modern game owes the precision of 

 its rules; for, although there have been many modi- 

 fications in minor points, the main principles remain 

 unchanged to this day, and every golf club, from San 

 Francisco eastward to Singapore, from St. Petersburg 

 southward to Australasia, conforms to every fresh edict 

 issuing from 



' The little city, grey and sere, 

 Though shrunken from her ancient pride, 

 And lonely by her lonely sea.' 



The orthodox number of eighteen holes, it seems, was 

 fixed by pure chance. There were originally twenty- 

 two holes on St. Andrews links, and so it continued till 



