The World of Golf. By Garden Smith. (A. D. Innes
and Co. 66.) —The literature of golf is perhaps already too large ; but if there must be an "Isthmian Library," it was inevitable that such a series of athletic manuals should include a volume on golf. Mr. Garden Smith's competence to write such a treatise is beyond question. He is a brilliant and enthusiastic amateur golfer, and he has quite the necessary amount of faith in the game as a means of indicating and developing character, holding that it "provides a bloodless arena where the highest attributes of human character—the qualities of courage, patience, and self-restraint—may be studied and cultivated, and whets a man may learn his true relation to his environments, and how to comport himself before his fellows." Mr. Smith's enthusiasm, faith, and knowledge, indeed, excuse the want of method which is, perhaps, the chief feature of his volume. In the course of the eighteen chapters to 'Which it runs, such all-important subjects as "clubs and balls," "style," "caddies," and "golfing etiquette," are sandwiched between descriptions of famous golf-courses such as St. Andrews, Prest- wick, Hoylake, and Sandwich. In point of method and coherence Mr. Smith's book will hardly compare with the more elaborate treatise which appears in the "Badminton Library." Yet there is a certain charm about this want of method. The book flows on like good talk, and so no sensible reader will resent some digressions, such as the story which is told of how two lads- brothers—met and defeated two " cracks " who had challenged them. Irish, American, and Continental golf have full justice done them, and the now very important subject of "ladies' golf" is treated by the eminently competent pen of Miss Amy Pascoe. While easily flowing, as has been said, the writing of Mr. Smith and of the experts who have assisted him in the preparation of this volume is free both from dogmatism and from prolixity, and that although such " contentious " topics are dis- cussed as the comparative length and " difficulty " of the leading golf courses in the Kingdom.
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