A HISTORY OF SURREY 



paths the condition of the Common was 

 largely as nature had left it, with beautiful 

 undulations, and dotted with clumps of 

 bracken and gorse which afforded capital 

 guards to the putting greens. The soil is dry 

 and porous, and rain has not much effect upon 

 it, even in winter. The area of the Common 

 is 220 acres, and the golfers laid out a very 

 interesting and diversified course of nine holes 

 on the west side near the estate of Broom- 

 wood. The Common was then surrounded 

 by large mansions in beautifully wooded 

 parks. Now the several causes already men- 

 tioned have driven the golfer into a small 

 comer. The club stUl exists, but the golf 

 enjoyed is a poor substitute for the varied 

 picturesqueness of the old course. Play, 

 moreover, is restricted to certain hours in the 

 early morning. 



The exodus from Clapham led to the for- 

 mation in 1888 of the Tooting Bee Club on 

 the neighbouring common. The ground 

 here was wdlder, more picturesque, and more 

 retired than Clapham ; indeed, it was quite 

 a common occurrence for the golfer in the 

 course of his round to start rabbits out of the 

 whin bushes when searching for a lost ball. 

 Here a club was formed, largely recruited 

 from the old Clapham club ; and for a few 

 years its playing existence was a happy one. 

 But the same inexorable fate overtook Toot- 

 ing. The tramways were carried out to 

 Streatham, and on Saturday afternoons the 

 cars unloaded hundreds in search of a rural 

 walk and fresh air. The public squeezed the 

 golfers off Tooting as at Clapham, and the 

 interesting eighteen-hole course laid out by 

 Tom Dunn among the bushes had to be aban- 

 doned. The club grew so rapidly in mem- 

 bership that the Committee decided to lease 

 at an annual rent of ^^455 a portion of the 

 neighbouring estate of Furzedown, the pro- 

 perty of Sir Charles Seely. The ground is 

 clay, soft and heavy in winter, but yielding 

 fine, hard, grassy lies in summer. Tom 

 Dunn, the professional to the club, used the 

 natural advantages of the ground to the ut- 

 most, planning out a fine sporting course. 



The Tooting Bee Club was the first to 

 acquire a private golf course in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London. That example has 

 since been followed by numerous clubs, 

 though the experiment at Tooting was felt 

 to be a hazardous one at the time. In addi- 

 tion to building a large and commodious 

 club-house at a cost of £z,-joo, the private 

 property of the club, ;ei,7oo were spent in 

 drammg the ground, making bunkers, and 

 re-laying putting greens. The club pros- 

 pered so quickly that until within a year or 



two ago, when its lease of ground began to 

 expire, its membership exceeded 500, the 

 entrance fee being £15 15^., and the annual 

 subscription £l y. For the first five or six 

 years of its existence the Parliamentary Tour- 

 nament was held on the Tooting course. 

 The Marquis of Granby, Mr. Balfour, Mr. 

 Herbert Gladstone, Sir Charles Tennant, 

 Mr. Hayes Fisher, Mr. Samuel T. Fisher, 

 Mr. W. H. Forster have all been captains of 

 the club, and its roll of membership includes 

 the majority of the golfing members of both 

 Houses of Parliament. But here again the 

 rising tide of population has overtaken the 

 golfer. The lease of the club expires in 1906, 

 and it wUl not be renewed by the landlord. 

 The ground has been mapped out for streets. 

 As the golfers were being pressed farther 

 and farther out into the county, the next 

 space chosen was Mitcham Common. In the 

 spring of 1892 the Prince's Golf Club was 

 formed here. Mr. Balfour was the President, 

 and the Committee included among others 

 Sir William Hart Dyke, M.P., Sir Herbert 

 Maxwell, M.P., Lord Edward Cecil, Grena- 

 dier Guards, the Marquis of Granby, Mr. 

 Alfred Lyttelton, Mr. Cosmo Bonsor, M.P., 

 Mr. T. W. Legh, M.P. (now Lord Newton), 

 and Mr. Hwfa Williams Mitcham Common 

 is about six miles in circumference, the sub- 

 soil is gravel, and the ground dries rapidly in 

 wet weather. Tom Morris, of St. Andrew's, 

 reported it suitable in every way for a golf 

 course. He and Tom Dunn, the professional 

 of the Tooting Bee Club, planned out a 

 course of eighteen holes, covering a distance 

 of 6,325 yards ; a club-house was erected 

 overlooking the platform of the railway station 

 of the London, Brighton and South Coast 

 Railway, and the membership rapidly reached 

 300. To-day the membership stands at 700, 

 with an entrance fee of ;£lo 10/., and an 

 annual subscription of £^ 5/. Members of 

 Prince's Racquet and Tennis Club, the 

 Guards' Club, the Marlborough, St. James's, 

 Bachelors', Arthur's, Broob' and White's 

 clubs are eligible for election without being 

 proposed or seconded. 



The club bought up certain manorial 

 rights, and a lease giving the right to make a 

 course and play golf on the Common was 

 obtained from the Common Conservators. 

 At this time Mitcham Common was one of 

 the most picturesquely rugged pieces of 

 country in the neighbourhood of London ; 

 a waste of whin, swamp, and yawning gravel 

 pits. It was subject to certain manorial 

 rights and commoner's servitudes, such as 

 liberty to graze cattle belonging to the 

 parishioners ; but as a place of public recrea- 



524 



