Having gone somewhat lightly through the various parts of the game of golf, it may not be amiss to close with a few remarks taken from an early volume of the _Golf Annual_, and occurring in an article written by Mr. John Thomson, which sets forth the advantages of the game in no mean manner. "Good games should benefit both mind and body, and no game can stand this test better than golf. To the mind it shows the need of caution, courage, coolness, and many other good qualities. Above all it teaches one to keep the temper under due control in all circumstances and situations. Our royal game brings out the strength and weakness of character both in yourself and others, and gives an excellent chance to study human nature. Some folks think they can know a man from his face, his mode of hand-shaking, or other such things, but if you wish to look a fellow through and through, play two or three stiff matches of golf with him. As to the healthy nature of the game, it is surely needless to say a word." Here the writer quotes a favourable passage from Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, closing his remarks with the words, "All round we may thus say our game promotes that greatest of all blessings, sound mind and sound body." A. W. M. Starkie-Bence. [Illustration: _Lombardi and Co. 13, Pall Mall East._ _MRS. SPONG._] CROQUET. In Dr. Prior's "Notes on Croquet," published in 1872, the origin of the game is traced to Pêle Mêle, or Pall Mall, a game played with mallet and balls as long ago as 1661, and written of by the celebrated Mr. Pepys in his diary about that time. Pall mall was played with long handled mallets, with small balls, on gravel, and with long swinging strokes, and appears to have much more resembled golf than croquet; but Dr. Prior writes of a modified form of the game which only occupied a narrow but smooth space of ground, and in which two small arches and one iron peg were employed, while the strokes were made with a spoon-headed mallet, resembling the mace used at billiards.