Golf invented next door
Incidently, Leith is in the history books as the place where the game of golf was invented. We are on the penultimate floor of a four storey building which faces out onto a big park known as Leith Links. According to the folk at the local pub ‘The Golf’, the game of golf has been played at Leith Links since at least 1600. In 1640, King Charles 1 heard news of the Irish rebellion whilst playing golf on the Links. The game gained more formal recognition in the 1700s when a club formed, calling themselves “The Gentlemen Golfers”. They would meet on a Saturday and lay wages on their game before retiring to a local hostelry to dine and settle their bets. In 1744, thirteen rules were drawn up, the first acknowledged rules of golf. They were titled ‘The articles and laws in playing at golf”. In 1754, The gentlemen of Fife invited The Gentlemen Golfers of Leith to join them in forming a club at St.Andrews which adopted the rules of Leith… and so ‘playing at golf’ spread throughout the world.
When David first told me this history of the park I looked around me and said “Ahh that explains the little hills doted about.”
“Well no.” He replied, “The mounds of earth were used to mount guns during Oliver Cromwell’s siege of Edinburgh”.
That siege was in 1650.
So let’s think this through, given that the game of modern golf is devastatingly boring, how boring would it have been without the little hills and sandtraps? If golf was first played in 1600, that is 50 sad years of wandering in the rain with a stick, a ball and a saggy cap with pom-poms. As I write this looking out over the Links, I imagine the golfers of the day would be very happy with the outcome of the siege of Edinburgh
“Today, men, is a day of Scottish pride, for although we have lost the battle, our independence, and the fine city of Edinburgh, TODAY my friends, we have made wee hills with wee flags to hit our wee balls into! No longer will we face the tryranny of flat parkland!”
HOORAY!
Hooray!
HOORAY!”