Historical gossip: About Golf and Golfers (bound with) GOLF AND GOLFERS: Past and Present

This is an out-of-print and rare book, boxed and numbered. A Facsimile of the 1863 Edition with an introduction by Frank (Sandy) Tatum, Jr., United States Golf Association, 1991. Two of the earliest books describing the game are combined into one. Historical Gossip has preserved a delightful compendium on golf as George Robb experienced over 150 years ago. He takes the reader through remarkable variety of facets about the game-- early history, development of golf clubs, comparisons with cricket, historic encounters, engaging personalities and amusing anecdotes-- he provides insights to why the game has such enduring appeal. Golf and Golfers Past and Present has Reverend McPherson reminiscing about golf on the Old Course at St. Andrews in the early days of the gutta percha with a deeply felt lament that the links were no longer what they had been, with "fashionable-committees" having minimized the "niceities of the game and force taking the place of skill." ... old George Glennie looking sadly at the filling up of 'Tam's Coo" bunker as a knight of old would regard the dead body of an honored and valued rival." The depths of these feelings are somewhat tempered by his recollections of the grace and skill of Allan Robertson whom the Reverend decisively thought was the best golfer who ever lived, a clear cut above the likes of Old and even Young Tom Morris. Surely to engage the interest of any golfer as to how much of the essence of the game played in the early 19th century has survived in the game we play today.