GIANTS OF THE LINKS 315 



per annum from his shop when this " accursed gutta- 

 percha" rival made its appearance. At first Robertson 

 only laughed derisively at the innovation. Finally, like a 

 sensible man, he took to manufacturing gutta-percha balls 

 himself, though he never would admit that they were 

 better than the old feather balls. 



Mr Messieux's famous drive of 308 yards on St 

 Andrews Links with the old-fashioned ball remained un- 

 beaten until Lieutenant F. G. Tait made his record drive, 

 the exact distance of which I forget (I fancy it was 340 

 yards), but at any rate it was a long way in front of Mr 

 Messieux's. Tait's record has been beaten by Home's 

 drive of 381 yards at North Berwick in July 1909, and 

 Braid is said to have driven 395 yards at Walton Heath on 

 frozen ground. 



Among some of the big things done with the old balls 

 and clubs were the following : — 



A bet was taken in 1798 that two members of the 

 Burgess Golfing Society of Edinburgh could not send balls 

 over the spire of St Giles' Church. The champions were 

 allowed to use six balls each, and the question was decided 

 early in the morning, to prevent accident and interruption. 

 The balls were struck from the south-east corner of Parlia- 

 ment Square, and the height, including base distance, is 

 161 feet. The balls passed considerably higher than the 

 required elevation, and, in point of fact, the undertaking 

 was not beyond the average powers of first-rate players. 



The next match of the kind was to drive a ball over the 

 Melville Monument in the New Town of Edinburgh. The 

 monument is only 150 feet high ; but the parties in the 

 second match, which took place many years after the other, 

 may have thought that golfing had so much degenerated 

 that the prowess of the last century could not be maintained. 

 The wager, however, was duly won by a Writer to the 

 Signet. 



These feats seem "small pertaters" to the modern 

 golfer. At St Andrews, 20 strokes in a round is the 

 difference between the form of the golfer of to-day and 

 the golfer of ninety years ago. Take the Gold Medal of 

 the Royal and Ancient. From 1806 to 1834 the course 



