Spirit of the links

THANKS TO CESAR
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feet above the sea-level. I have no information
about the game having been played in the North
Polar regions; but I am told that when the recent
British Antarctic Expedition was made in the
Discovery,
the Commander, Captain Scott, who is
a keen golfer, took some clubs down there with
him, and in some leisure moments "had a knock,"
by way of reminding him of the old links at home,
and of seeing what the sensation of South Polar golf
was like. It is said that forged iron has a peculiarly
cold and numbing touch in the frozen south.
It is the same game everywhere, and the law is
always taken from Fifeshire ; but the conditions and
makeshifts are sometimes peculiar. We have said
how at the Cape they putt on gritty earth that
smacks of diamonds, how in China there are graves
for bunkers, and how across the Channel, Napoleon's
trenches serve for the same purpose. Boulogne, after
all, is only in the nature of a corollary to our courses
at Walton Heath and Huntercombe, for hereabouts
the golfers play where the legions of mighty Caesar
were encamped, and the stables and the kitchens
that Caesar made, huge pits deep in the earth, are in
the line of play, and things are so arranged that they
constitute fine traps for erring balls, and offer re-
munerative opportunities for skill with iron clubs
in playing out of them. And yet, if one must play
bad shots, it is well that they should be played in the
direction in which Caesar dug, for these pits were
made so long ago and are so deep that they are
often beautifully turfed with soft springy stuff, which
anywhere except in a pit would be a delight to play
from, being so congenial to one's iron. We must
applaud the Romans in this matter. It is nearly a
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