A HISTORY OF SURREY 



ship is 350, the entrance fee being seven 

 guineas and the subscription three guineas. 

 Its playing members are drawn largely from 

 the Bar ; and among those who play there 

 are Mr. Justice Kekewich, Sir Robert Reid, 

 K.C., M.P., Hon. Alfred Lyttelton, K.C., 

 M.P., and Mr. Gerald Balfour, M.P., who 

 has recently built a residence in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the golf course. 



Perhaps the most unique golf course in 

 Surrey, or indeed any\vhere in the country, 

 is that of the New Zealand Golf Club at By- 

 fleet. The course has been carved out of a 

 pine forest, and though doubts were ex- 

 pressed at the time it was opened, in May, 

 1895, whether it would ever be made suitable 

 for play, subsequent experience has justified 

 the faith of those responsible for its creation. 

 It has become one of the most popular clubs 

 in the county. The making of this course 

 arose out of a challenge made to Mr. H. 

 Locke King, of Brooklands, an extensive 

 landowner in the neighbourhood, that his 

 property near Byfleet could not in any cir- 

 cumstances be turned into a golf course. 

 The challenge was accepted, and after eigh- 

 teen months of arduous labour the present 

 course of three and a half miles was cut 

 through the woods. Mr. Mure Fergusson, 

 helped by Douglas RoUand, a well-known 

 professional, bore the brunt of the labour 

 connected with the formation of the course 

 and in making the club the success it is. The 

 soil is sandy and the turf is as good as can be 

 found at the seaside. The membership is 

 300, with an entrance fee of live guineas and 

 three guineas subscription. Byfleet is one 

 of the most popular resorts near the Metro- 

 polis for Sunday play. 



There were in the year 1903 forty golf 

 clubs in the county officially chronicled in the 

 directory, and others were then in process of 

 formation. This number does not include 

 the large number of ladies' clubs which, as a 

 rule, are formed at the same time as those of 

 the men, and are managed by a committee 

 of the ladies' own election. These ladies' 



clubs have very frequently a separate club- 

 house and a separate course, and they are 

 therefore separate organizations in all re- 

 spects, except that sometimes the ladies are 

 indebted for a littie friendly business super- 

 vision from the men. The two most influ- 

 ential ladies' clubs are the Prince's Ladies 

 at Mitcham and the Royal Wimbledon 

 Ladies on Wimbledon Common, a club which 

 was formed so far back as 1872. Both these 

 ladies' clubs have separate courses and sepa- 

 rate club-houses, and among the players in 

 each club are to be found some of the best 

 lady players in the country. The members 

 belonging to these two clubs were mainly in- 

 strumental in instituting the Ladies' Cham- 

 pionship and in founding the affiliation of the 

 Ladies' Golf Clubs all over the kingdom 

 known as the Ladies' Golf Union. Among 

 the names of ladies who have done much to 

 promote the highest interests of ladies' golf 

 in the county as well as generally, are Miss 

 Issette Pearson, Mrs. H. C. Willock, Mrs. 

 Cameron, the Misses Tyrwhitt Drake, Miss 

 Frere, Mrs. Lyndhurst Towne (nee Miss Lena 

 Thomson, a winner of the Ladies' Champion- 

 ship), Miss Pascoe, Miss M. E. Phillips, and 

 Miss Kenyon Stow. Their labours to pro- 

 mote the Golf Union and to watch over the 

 interests of ladies' golf have been greatly 

 aided by the valuable counsel and experience 

 of Dr. Laidlaw Purves, Mr. Norman Foster, 

 and other gentiemen connected with the 

 Royal Wimbledon Club. The Prince's 

 Ladies have an exceedingly interesting pri- 

 vate course on Mitcham Common, in ac- 

 quiring which they are much indebted to 

 the efforts of Miss Grace Langley and Mr. 

 Samuel T. Fisher. The Surrey ladies are 

 not only ahead of the men in having thus 

 early founded a Golf Union to regulate their 

 competitions, rules and handicaps, but they 

 have long since begun a series of inter-county 

 championship matches with other districts 

 in the country. They have thus been 

 the pioneers in the ladies' golf movement 

 begun ten years ago. 



CRICKET 



Surrey men are proud, and with reason, 

 of the distinguished part their county has 

 played in the history of our national game. 

 Long before the Hambledon Club came into 

 existence Surrey cricketers had won fame 

 above their fellows. When the game was 

 first regularly played in the county it is not 

 easy to determine. That it was one of the 

 amusements of Surrey schoolboys over three 



526 



hundred years ago is beyond dispute. The 

 official records of the City of Guildford 

 furnish proof positive of this. The follow- 

 ing extract is from Russell's History of Guild- 

 ford, which is to be seen reproduced in 

 facsimile in the Pavilion at the Oval — 



.' Anno 40 Eliz. 1598 John Derrick, Gent., one of 

 the Queen's Majesties Coroners of the County of 

 Surrey aged fifty-nine saith thi» land before 



