Page:Out-door Games Cricket and Golf (1901).djvu/66

it is from London Bridge to Christmas Day." I am tempted to make the same remark when I am asked which, in my opinion, is the best game—cricket or golf. The thing is not arguable. The only points of resemblance in the two games are that a ball is required in both games, and a weapon of some sort to hit the said ball. Mr. Balfour has urged with great truth that it is impossible to say that a man would go to Lord's or the Oval to enjoy scenery as he would, presumably, to North Berwick. Mr. Horace Hutchinson has somewhere said that a golfer who in the middle of a game makes any remarks on the beauty of the scenery is probably three holes down and only four to play. This would seem to imply that golf is such a great game that such trifling considerations as appreciation of the beauty of nature and love of the picturesque ought to have no place in the true golfer's constitution. There is, however, a great deal of golf played on wet clay fields with nothing striking in the way of scenery to charm the golfer. The oldest golf links in England, if not in the world, are at Blackheath, but golf at Blackheath is not played