Spirit of the links

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THE SPIRIT OF THE LINKS
distinctly /Esthetic, and there is no other course that
is worthy of inclusion in this particular class.
We have another school, which should be called the
Victorian. It has many merits, and it is very prolific.
It represents a sober and industrious kind of golf, but
it is utterly lacking in any inspiration. It is as busi-
ness like and exact as you please, a six-o'clock-sharp
morning-dress kind of golf. It conduces to good
habits, and will make some good golfers. But on the
whole it is rather prim and dull, and one never feels
the blood running in the veins when contemplating
it. Muirfield is one of the Victorian school, and
there are one or two of the satellites of Hoylake,
on its own seaboard, that are of it also. Sandwich
has much of the Victorian element in it; but it is
redeemed by the strong influence of other schools, as
by the extreme romanticism of the Maiden. The
suburbs in their own small way went over to
Victorianism entirely at the outset, partly because
their circumstances exerted such an irresistible
tendency in that direction. A drive over one bunker
and a pitch over the next one is Victorianism in its
crudest form; but perhaps after all the suburbs are
lucky in being able to attach themselves to any
school. I am told that the Victorian school has
had paramount influence in America.
VII
Of the links we know, those by the sea, to which do
we return for the tenth'or the twentieth time joyously as
to a delightful friend in a charming home? Instantly
we murmur the name of dear North Berwick. The