A GOSSIP ON GOLF 313 



exception of the venerable Blackheath institution. A 

 young player wintering at Pau, and ignorant of the 

 language, had for his " caddie " a French boy who knew 

 no English. They managed to get on by the language of 

 signs. At last the player made a remarkably good approach 

 shot, and, his ball lying dead, he turned round with an air 

 of intense satisfaction and triumph to his " caddie," who 

 instantly exclaimed, " Beastly fluke ! " It was all the 

 English that he knew, and it was meant as a compliment. 

 But it must be admitted that he could scarcely have found 

 a phrase less calculated to flatter the vanity of the player. 



Of the great heroes of golf — Allan Robertson, Hugh 

 Kirkaldy, "Old Tom" Morris, and a host of others — there 

 is much to tell, but it should be told in a less frivolous 

 spirit, and must therefore be reserved for another chapter ; 

 for there is nothing more annoying to the true golfer than 

 to have his absorbing pursuit treated lightly. It is to him 

 what whist was to Sarah Battle. When he wants to " un- 

 bend his mind," he takes up a volume on metaphysics, or 

 solves abstruse mathematical problems, or, in the case of 

 a few flightier and more juvenile players, indulges in digajne 

 of chess. But for Heaven's sake don't speak of golf in his 

 hearing as a game — he might brain you with his " driver," 

 and in any case his language would probably lift the hair 

 from your head. 



