SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



tion, or as a cricket or football ground, it was 

 not to be thought of. For very many years 

 the available portions of the Common had 

 been literally carted away in the gravel carts, 

 while the other portions of the Common were 

 dense growths of whin. There was no at- 

 tempt locally, corporate or otherwise, to im- 

 prove this condition of affairs, until the 

 golfers appeared upon the scene. The 

 Prince's Golf Club spent thousands of pounds 

 in improving and beautifying this waste. The 

 swamps were drained and fiUed up, the cart- 

 ing of gravel was stopped, the gipsies, who 

 made the Common impossible for any woman 

 to walk through alone, were pushed further 

 afield, and a beautiful golf course was 

 carved out of the immense stretch of whins. 

 Tons of soil were carted to fill up the exca- 

 vations made for gravel. Indeed it is owing to 

 the enterprise of the golfers at Mitcham that 

 the inhabitants are able to use the Common 

 at all, for it happens that the portions used 

 to-day for public recreation and as the feed- 

 ing ground of the commoners' cattle are 

 mainly found where the putting-greens and 

 other clearings in the whins have been made. 

 Though the advantages arising from the 

 appearance of the golfers at Mitcham are 

 indisputable, a local agitation against the 

 club was attempted in 1894. Letters ap- 

 peared in the newspapers complaining .that 

 the game was dangerous to the public, that 

 the appearance of the Common was being 

 altered, that the sum of £60 paid to the con- 

 servators for the lease was paltry, and that, in 

 short, a wholesale spoliation of public rights 

 was being attempted. A threat was made 

 to make ' Golf or no golf ' at Mitcham a test 

 question for the election of Conservators at 

 the local elections in April of that year. The 

 storm, however, blew over. The amateur 

 record of the course is held by Mr. Horace 

 Hutchinson. 



In the ten years between 1886 and 1895 

 golf clubs grew with great rapidity throughout 

 all districts of the county. These new insti- 

 tutions for the most part avoided utilizing 

 the public commons near the towns. Re- 

 peated experience had shown that the dura- 

 tion of tenure, under such conditions, was 

 so short as to make it highly inexpedient to 

 undertake any great outlay in making a course. 

 With the exceptions already mentioned, the 

 commons at present utilized for golf are so 

 far removed that there is no danger of the 

 public seriously molesting the players. These 

 are places like Epsom, where a club with 250 

 members has been established since 1889, 

 Limpsfield Chart (a Kent and Surrey word 

 for * wooded waste-land ') nearly 550 feet 



above sea-level, Kenley Common, Claygate 

 Common, the Sutton Club, which plavs on 

 the highest part of Banstead Downs, Purley 

 Downs, Hankley Common, near Farnham, 

 where the course commands lovely views of 

 the country, Ashtead, Esher Common, 

 Earlswood Common, and the Merrow Downs 

 at Guildford. On these places the game is 

 played to the highest advantage both in re- 

 spect of situation, the character of the 

 ground, and the absence of interference. 

 The golf clubs, moreover, have long been 

 recognized by local inhabitants, who were 

 once opposed to them, as a substantial aid to 

 local prosperity, for the game attracts well- 

 to-do residents. But in other portions of 

 the county the new golf clubs lease for seven, 

 fourteen, or twenty-one years a suitable piece 

 of land and make a private course. The 

 owner usually leases his land at a fairly moder- 

 ate rental ; and if the ground is highly suitable 

 for the game the future prosperity of the club 

 is assured. Under this system of leasehold 

 ownership many of the most important golf 

 clubs have been constituted. For example, 

 there are the two large and influential clubs 

 at Richmond. Formed in 1891, the Rich- 

 mond Golf Club leased the whole of Sud- 

 brook Park, including the old mansion house 

 once a Royal residence and now the head- 

 quarters of the club. A great deal of money 

 has been spent in making one of the most 

 beautiful, and from a golfing point of view, 

 one of the most interesting courses in Surrey. 

 The membership of the club is 400, at an 

 entrance fee of ten guineas, and an annual 

 subscription of five guineas ; and frequently 

 at Sudbrook Park, in the summer months 

 when Parliament is in session. Lord Chan- 

 cellor Halsbury, Mr. Speaker GuUy, and 

 Lord Shand, may be seen playing a round. 

 The Mid-Surrey Golf Club, whose course is 

 in the Old Deer Park at Richmond, was 

 formed in 1892, and its entrance fee and sub- 

 scription are the same as the other club. 

 The membership is limited to 450, and there 

 are always plenty of candidates for vacancies. 

 The club rents from the Crown 300 

 acres of the Park, the soil being sand and 

 gravel, and highly suitable for golf purposes. 

 The professional attached to the club is 

 J. H. Taylor, three times Open Champion, 

 one of the most brilliant players the game 

 has ever produced. The record of the green 

 is 70, held by H. Vardon, another Open Cham- 

 pion. Another important club started the 

 year following is the Woking Club, which 

 plays over one of the best of inland golf 

 courses at Hook Heath, two miles from the 

 railway station. The limit of the member- 



525 



