. Review of reviews and world's work. it goff,and some call it gowf ! A certain gentle-man was taken to task by Dr. Parr for pro-nouncing the ancient capital of Egypt Alexan-dria, and quoted as his authority Dr. Bentley and I, replied Dr. Parr, maycall it Alexandria, but I think you had bettercall it Alexandria. The word golf has aDutch ancestry, and without much doubt comesfrom the Dutch *kolf, meaning club. Asearly as 1618 the importation of golf-l)alls fromHolland into Scotland aroused the ire of thatparsimonious sovereign, James V]., then JamesI. of England, and he did what he
. Review of reviews and world's work. it goff,and some call it gowf ! A certain gentle-man was taken to task by Dr. Parr for pro-nouncing the ancient capital of Egypt Alexan-dria, and quoted as his authority Dr. Bentley and I, replied Dr. Parr, maycall it Alexandria, but I think you had bettercall it Alexandria. The word golf has aDutch ancestry, and without much doubt comesfrom the Dutch *kolf, meaning club. Asearly as 1618 the importation of golf-l)alls fromHolland into Scotland aroused the ire of thatparsimonious sovereign, James V]., then JamesI. of England, and he did what he could to pro-hibit it. The man, therefore, who depends uponthe most ancient traditions for his pronunciationof the word had best study the Dutch pronuncia-tion of the word kolf. But even then, mind-ful of Dr. Parrs rebuke to his priggish friend,it were as well not to shock too rudely the usageof our native land, and to pronounce it somethingbetween goluf and gowf, with a touch ofnasality ! The steeplechase of to-day, over a prepared. course, with the walls, water-jumps, and hurdlesall carefully measured, is far renrioved from thesteeplechase from which it gets its name. Then,the steeplechase was a race across country, eachman taking his own line for the church-steeple,which could be seen for miles the country round. Golf began in the same way. It was a balland a stick ; and who could get it to the church-dooi, in the center of the town, in the feweststrokes. Then some one made a club especiallyadapted to this purpose, and the game came tobe called by the name of the principal weaponused. That the game deserves its title of ancientand royal, there can be no question. As earlyas the middle of the hfteenth century, Scotlandsuffered from the fact that her youths played golfinstead of exercising with the long-bow ; and the
Size: 2127px × 1175px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidreviewofrevi, bookyear1890
