Skip to main content

‹‹‹ prev (113)

(115) next ›››

(114)
76THEROYALBURGESSGOLFINGSOCIETYOFEDINBURGH
questionofdrillingtroopsandexercisinghorsesonthe
Linkswasfurtherbroughtintoprominencein1812
whenanactionofinterdictwasraisedintheSheriff
CourtofEdinburghattheinstanceoftheEdinburgh
BurgessGolfingClubwithconcurrenceofthePro-
curator-Fiscal,forthepublicinterest,againsttheRoyal
RidingAcademyinNicolsonStreet,topreventthe
trainingofhorsesontheLinks.Denholm,theSociety's
officer,hadbeeninstructedtoturnoffallpersonsfound
traininghorsesontheLinks,andfaithfultohisduties,
hechallengeda"RoughRider"fromtheRoyalManege
inNicolsonStreet.The"RoughRider"provedvery
roughindeed,ashethreatenedtoknockDenholm
downwithhiswhip,and"bestoweduponhimmany
approbriousnamesandepithets"—swearinghewould
cometotheLinksasoftenashepleasedandwould
notbepreventedbyDenholmoranyoneelse.In
defence,itwasstatedthattheDukeofBuccleuchand
theEarlofRosslyn,amongstothernoblemenand
gentlemen,senttheirhorsestheretobeproperly
trainedandmadesteady,asitwasnecessarythatsuch
trainingshouldproceedwhilemilitaryareatexercise,
andthatwhenDenholmchallengedtherespondenthe
wasridingachargerwhichbelongedtoanofficercom-
mandingaregimentatthattimeontheground.The
Linksinquestionwastheonlyplace"wherethe
Militarynowdrill,"anditiswellknown,thedefence
proceeds,thattheofficercommandingthetroops,as
wellasothergentlemen,haveriddenthere"fortime
immemorial."Theinterdictwasgranted,butitwas
recommendedatthesametime"totakeintoconsidera-
tionthattheroyalManegewastheonlyplacein
Scotlandwherehorsescouldbebroken-informilitary
purposes,andthatmaterialprejudicewouldresult,not
onlytothatinstitutionbuttothepublicservice,ifthe
interdictthengrantedshouldberigidlyenforced."
TheSocietywas,`therefore,recommendedtoarrangethe
matterwithColonelLeatham,manageroftheRoyal

Images and transcriptions on this page, including medium image downloads, may be used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence unless otherwise stated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence