in the game was very soon left without the slightest chance of victory, and was beaten by a full eight holes. The gods would never permit the favourite Freddie to be beaten by the finest player of his time, and that player now refers to his early engagements with the soldier as the day when Tait “commenced his career as the slaughterer of Hilton.” Another day we find Freddie revelling in two glorious matches with Andrew Kirkaldy on the new course at St. Andrews. In the morning he lost by a couple of holes, but in the afternoon he was the winner on the last green. “Another splendid match,” he rejoices; “both in great form. F. G. T. only halved the third hole by carelessly moving his ball with hand while removing a piece of grass. The hole was played out and won by F. G. T., but he had, of course, to lose a stroke, according to the rules of golf. This unfortunate accident made the difference of one hole. A. K., 80, a magnificent score. F. G. T., in: 4 3 5 4 4 4 5 4 4 = 37.” Here is another comment, “R. T. B. very fair. Self good at first, but got too many up, and then got careless, with the usual result.” He lost that match by a hole. Another time, when he was playing the best of two balls, he wrote: “Played badly. The two balls also bad.” That match was fittingly halved. In this way we can follow the happy Freddie all the way through the spring and summer to the end of the year on all the best links that are to be found, and these judgments of his will serve as models to other men who in this small matter would copy the methods of the perfect golfer. There is this entry in the match-book alongside the date 31st July 1888, concerning a match with Mr. Norman Playfair: “Driving very poor. Put a ball through a man’s hat and had to pay five shillings.” Young Freddie, then only eighteen years of age, went to old Tom Morris to complain of his ill-luck in the matter, but Tom answered him wisely, “Ah, Master Freddie, ye may be vera thankful that it’s only a hat, and no’ an oak coffin ye hae to pay for.” Even now, when the sad happenings of the South African War, which at the time so wrung our heart-strings with misery, have been somewhat mellowed by time, the great consoler, it is impossible to glide into this channel of reminiscence without feeling that the pleasure of it is touched with melancholy that the body that held that noble soul should be resting among the trees by the banks of the Riet River. VI