Spirit of the links

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JAMIE BALFOUR 301
being convicted of playing five different times at Golf
without his uniform, was fined only in Six Pints,
having confessed the heinousness of his crime." To
this minute, signed by the captain, there is appended
a codicil, stating, " at his own request he was fined of
Three Pints more." Always pints, and never pounds
or guineas. The Company even thought that it was a
proper thing for it to pass a formal resolution adopt-
ing certain liquors as the club drink, just in the same
way as they would adopt a uniform. Thus, on
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December 1779, the sentiment of Christmas
being already abroad, it was resolved and duly
entered on the minutes, that "Port and Punch shall
be the ordinary Drink of the Society, unless upon
these days when the Silver Club and Cups are played
for. At those meetings Claret or any other Liquor
more agreeable will be permitted."
O, say some, for the days of famous Jamie Balfour,
secretary and treasurer of the Company in
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793 !
Never was jollier golfer. And never a man more
honest, more deservedly popular, and loved by all
his contemporaries than he, as witness the fact that
when, alas! he went to the links of Valhalla before he
reached the age of sixty, the company mourned for
him as golfers had never mourned before. They met
at a special meeting and dinner in the most solemn
mourning, with the Captain in the chair and Sir James
Stirling, Baronet, Lord Provost of the City of Edin-
burgh, beside him, and drank to Balfour's memory in
the most solemn of toasts.
Jamie looked upon the wine when it was red; he
could see no virtue in self-denial. He liked the sound
of the drawn cork. When he heard one drawn in any
house that he happened to be in, which gave an
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