Miss Chambers, of Hoylake, also made her début in the 1905 Open Championship meeting. She is a terrifically long driver, few, if any, of the lady golfers being equal to her in this respect; but, as yet, she lacks steadiness, a quality which only comes with time and practice. The The 1905 Open Ladies' Championship Meeting proved a record one in point of numbers. starting list was simply of alarming proportions, and the starters had no light task in despatching the different competitors from the first tee and disposing of all their duties. The links partly lay on the edge of the cliffs, and the sea proved a great peril, many a sliced ball disappearing into the dim distance. A greater peril arose when the balls balanced themselves on the edge of the cliffs, and the golfers had to advance with gingerly steps and make their shot from within a couple of feet or so of the overhanging precipice. Those with steady heads advanced calmly to make the stroke, but those with weaker nerves despatched their caddies to retrieve the balls, preferring to lose the hole than run the risk their lively imaginations portrayed. The American Contingent The American contingent gave added zest to the contest. Hitherto very little had been known, except by hearsay, of American ladies' golf, so that the chance of gaining a true insight into their form was eagerly grasped at. Eight or nine of the strangers took part in the contest, and one and all proved thoroughly sporting and delightful in every way. The American Champion, Miss G. Bishop, was, of course, especially noticed; but, unfortunately, she failed to do herself justice, being quite off her game. opposed in the final, and the former, by consistent, and at times brilliant, golf, gained the victory on the sixteenth green. Miss Thompson thus became the winner of the coveted gold medal, and the proud bearer of the title-Open Lady Golf Champion. She is a most finished golfer, and her win was a very popular one. She knows all the niceties of the game, and bears out the theory that physical strength is not a necessity, but only an adjunct to knack and correctness of style. The most noticeable point about the American's play was their lack of finish. They could drive well and brassey well, and, in fact, make all the long shots well, but when it came to the more delicate points of the game, they were completely at a loss, and failed time after time. They were quick to notice this point themselves, confessing that when approaching they played primarily for the green, not for the hole, but one and all expressed the determination to remedy the matter during the next few months. Miss Tynte A coming Irish player Miss M. Curtis and Miss Adams were, perhaps, the best of the contingent, the former displaying phenomenal driving powers. Miss Bishop eventually fell a victim to Miss Lloyd Roberts, Miss Adams to Mrs. Brown, and Miss M. Curtis, after an exceedingly close struggle, finishing on the nineteenth green, to Miss B. Thompson. Miss Dorothy Campbell, of North Berwick, was really the player who displayed the most consistently good form during the meeting. Up to the semi-final round she maintained an exceedingly high standard of golf, going round regularly in the low eighties and winning her matches easily. In the semi-final round. she was opposed to Miss M. E. Stuart, the last of the Irish contingent, and at the start seemed to have it all her own way, gradually getting a lead of three holes. Miss Stuart then made a brilliant effort, and, by the help of three perfect threes, squared the match. From that point Miss Dorothy Campbell evidently suffered from "nerves," and Miss Stuart eventually gained the match the sixteenth green. The other semi-final lay between Mis. Brown and Miss Bertha Thompson. The former is a good scratch player, with a pretty swing, but the latter proved too much for her, and won the match. Miss Thompson and Miss M. E. Stuart were thus Irish Ladies' Championship The Irish Ladies' Championship meeting was held at Portsalon, in Co. Donegal, and no more delightful place could have been selected for the contest. Portsalon may be difficult of access, but there are no two opinions about its charm, and once the journey is accomplished, all discomfort and fatigue is forgotten in the enjoyment of the perfect air and scenery, and the excellent quality of the links. Unfortunately, there was only a small entry, the names of Miss Rhona Adair and Miss F. Walker Leigh being included among the absentees; but added interest was given to the event by the presence of Miss Issette Pearson, the popular Hon. Secretary of the Ladies' Golf Union, and Miss M. E. Phillips, the Hon. Secretary of the English County Golf Association. The links were in splendid condition, and everything passed off successfully. The semi-finalists proved to be the three Misses Hezlet and Miss Murray. Miss May Hezlet met Miss Murray, and defeated her somewhat easily, while Miss F. Hezlet and Miss V. Hezlet had a close struggle for supremacy, the former eventually being successful by three up and two to play. Miss May Hezlet and Miss F. Hezlet were, therefore, left in to fight out the final round. They had an excellent match, sometimes one leading and sometimes the other; Miss F. Hezlet had decidedly the worst of the luck, and Miss May Hezlet, fluking out an approach at the seventeenth hole, won the match and the Championship by two up and one to play. The most notable feature of the meeting was the high average of play, despite the comparatively small number of competitors. The North West Club was represented by an exceedingly strong contingent, comprising, among others, Miss Tynte, Miss M. Dickson, and Miss K. Gillies, all three of whom showed great promise for the future. They have very much the same characteristics, all being long drivers, but, Miss Tynte especially, has also a great command over the short game, and possesses many of the qualities necessary for a good match player, chief of them being perseverance and the power of retrieving an apparently hopeless position by some brilliant effort. Scottish Ladies' Championship The Scotch Ladies' Championship took place at North Berwick, and, in spite of rather unfavourable weather, was keenly contested and well attended. Miss Dorothy Campbell, from the start, by many was regarded as the probable winner, and fulfilled all expectations, playing brilliant golf, and gaining the victory in the final round after a most exciting match with Miss M. A. Graham, whom she only defeated by a putt on the nineteenth green. Miss Dorothy Campbell is the most consistent of the Scotch golfers; others may be more brilliant at times, but none possess the same invaluable gift of steadiness. Her driving is not phenomenal, although she gets a good long ball; but the secret of her many successes is the wonderful way in which she plays the short game, running up approaches without the least appearance of effort, and holeing out or laying dead with unfailing regularity. It was not to be wondered at that the final round between Miss Campbell and Miss Graham should be such a good match, as the latter possesses very much the same characteristics. She approaches in a different style, pitching generally instead of running up, but the result is very similar, and both may be considered experts in the art. Ladies' Welsh Championshi links. Her home club is Cork, and she may be considered one of the best of the South of Ireland golfers, having mide great progress during the last couple of years. The other International contests took place prior to the Championship meeting at Cromer There was a large field to choose from, hence the three countries were more strongly represented than usual, and some really excellent golf took place. Mr. T. H. Miller, of Singleton Park, one of the Vice-Presidents of the L.GU, very kindly presented a magnificent silver trophy in the form of a shield as a prize for the contest, his intention being that the winning team of each year should have their names engraved thereon in silver letters. Intense interest was manifested in the matches, and finally Scotland came out of the ordeal with flying colours, defeating both England and Ireland, while England had the satisfaction of defeating Ireland, and poor Ireland had no satisfaction at all. The members of the Scotch team were: Miss M. A. Graham, Miss County Golf Championship In the English county golf contests, Yorkshire proved the successful team for 1905, after a tie in the final against Middlesex The winning team had the advantage of numbering Miss Bertha Thompson, the Open Champion, among its members, and the rest of the players were Miss E. Steel, Miss K. Moeller, Mrs. H. Lister, Miss N. Haigh, Miss Robson, and Mrs. Swayne. In Ireland, Co. Donegal carried all before it, defeating Co. Dublin in the final, the names of the representatives being, Miss Tynte, Miss M. Dickson, Miss K. Gillies, and Mrs. Baird. Miss L. Garrett (sitting down) Hon. Secretary, Irish Ladies' Golf Union The first Ladies' Welsh Championship meeting was decided at Penarth, and proved a most successful institution. Miss E. Young, of Glamorgan, carried off the highest honour, and won the Cup, so being entitled to bear the title of first Welsh Lady Champion. Miss Duncan, another member of the Glamorgan L.G.C., was the runner-up. No article on ladies' golf for the past year would be complete without some mention of the International contests. The first took place, as customary, at the Ranelagh meeting, when the handsome Cup given by the Ranelagh Club was competed for by medal play. England, Ireland, and Scotland were all well represented, and a close struggle took place. On the first day's play England was two strokes to the good, Ireland being second, but on the second day the fortunes were reversed, and by a splendid effort the Irish team managed to gain supremacy, and for the fourth time carried off the Cup. The members of the Irish team who made the winning scores were Miss May Hezlet, Mrs. Durlacher, Miss Violet Hezlet, and Miss Gubbins. The latter is particularly worthy of mention, as it was her first appearance at. Ranelagh, and she was totally unacquainted with the It would take too much time and space to enumerate the results of all the minor Champion ship meetings, such as Yorkshire, Midland, Cornish, etc., or to attempt a detailed description of the play of those lady golfers in Britain and Ireland whose names figure prominently in the prize lists at open meetings, and whose form is of the scratch and plus calibre. Sufficient it is to say that as each year draws to a close, the improved standard in ladies' golf becomes more and more manifest. Those who can remember the class of play at the first two or three Championship meetings must stand amazed at the the wonderful development of the game and the extraordinarily increased power displayed by the average lady golfer of the present day. Not only is she able to drive a considerably longer ball, but she appears to have gained a far greater mastery over all her clubs. MAY HEZLET 6. an Round About My Peking Garden," by Mrs. Archibald Little (Fisher Unwin: 15s. net), is, to use the author's own phrase, "a little tribute to a time of dal'iance in one of China's many pleasant places." As in "The Land o the Blue Gown," 'Intimate China," and her novels, Mrs. Little shows us China as seen through the eyes of Englishwoman with good powers of observation and a ready pen to describe. The style in this book, as in others by the same hand, is nothing it not conversat onal and intimate, though there is an un ortunate tendency to use slang. One does not "hang over" railings, nor does one "raise talk"-not in England, at least. These are typical instances, and, having mentioned them, no more need be said on the matter. Mrs. Little herself wou d no doubt disclaim calling her book literature, even as she disclaims having written a guide book, and in the pleasant region which lies betwixt the two a forgetful hour or two can be spent in perusing the author's vivacious descrip tions of Peking and its inhabitants. These include descriptions of the town and the country round, of the many "forbidden" parts of the city, and also of journeys made to Port Arthur and Dalny. One of our illustrations -that of the bedroom of the Dowager Empress-is, in itself, sufficient proof that the old order is changing at Peking. One is struck, on looking at this picture, by the European character of the room and its furniture. Of the DowagerEmpress herself, 46 The Ways of Nature." By John Burroughs. (Constable : 5s.) "The Collected Poems of Austin Dobson." (Kegan Paul: 6s.) "The Story of the Jovial Elephant." By W. Ralston. (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co.: 35. 6.) Mrs. Little has much that is interesting to say, and the following word picture only heightens our disgust of the woman who, more than anybody else, was responsible for the Boxer massacres : Tse-Hsi, Empress Dowager, was the next to appear, standing for some time on the railway platform with very voyant embroideries, a eunuch supporting her under either arm. On this occasion she certainly looked her age, sixty-eight, with very broad face and many double chins. Her eyes, the longest probably ever seen, remained cast down, and though there was a great appearance of graciousness, the smile, whose coldness is said to chill even forein Ministers, was absent. Yet, as she stood still and silent, with her eyes cast down, one felt the magnetic power of the woman. There was no appearance of powder or paint about her, no indication of either eyes or eyebrows being artificially lengthened. If done at all, it must have been well done. But the thing that was most striking about her was her stillness. "We had to cross the railway, and (From "The Story of the Jovial Elephant," Our other illustration shows the Imperial Throne in the Forbidden City, or rather what used to be the "forbidden" part of the city. The book is well illustrated throughout with a series of admirable photographs, which help the reader to realise vividly many of Mrs. Little's fine descriptive passages. Imperial Throne room in Forbidden City (From "Round Abou My Peking Garden," by kind permission of T. Fisher Unwin) Mr. William O'Brien's "Recollections (Macmillan : 145. net), is really his autobiography, though Mr. O'Brien is far too modest a man to have it so called. To English readers who only know the author as one of the most determined and vigorous of Irish patriots or Parliamentary obstructionists - whichever you will, it seems impossible to imagine that under his political demeanour deep down beneath, the politician who has made himself one of the most hated members of the Irish Party, there lies another William O'Brien, a shrinking, timid soul, with all the Celtic passion for dreams. The two personalities seem incompatible, almost impossible, and Mr. O'Brien's biography affords as striking an instance as it is possible to recall of the power of environment in the shaping of human personality. In boyhood his principal amusement was to climb up into "the topmost branches of a 'Molly' tree, the highest in our garden." "Here," he says, "I would bask by the hour upon my gently shaking couch, amidst the apple blossoms or the green fruit. . . . Sometimes the hours passed in mere wandering thought, formless and indolent." A curious preparation for the stirring days to come! things from the inside. Writers of the old school, the Gilbert Whites (could there ever have been mor: than one?) and Richard Jefferies, wrote of Nature as they saw it through their own individualities. The new nature-writer, however, tries to interpret for us the outlook of the animal upon life, as is done in Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton's books, and also in Mr. W. J. Ginn's, whose "Northern Trails" was recently noticed in these columns Of this character is "The Stoat Pack," by G. G. Desmond (Alston Rivers: 5s), a little book which deals simply, from the animals' point of view, with the wild life to be found in an ordinary English meadow and along our hedgerows. As a book fo: healthy boys with a growing love of sport this volume will teach much concerning "the survival of the fittest," and presented to the young hopeful just learning to handle a gun will cause him oftentimes to pause and reflect that Dowager Empress's bedroom (From "Round About My Peking Garden," by kind permission of T. Fisher Unwin) Mr. O'Brien was a born writer. He tells us how, in his thirteenth year, he "published" in manuscript "The Poetical Works of William O'Brien," and he was but seventeen when he wrote his famous letter to the Daily News on Irish Politics-a letter which, quoted in full in his biography, contains the substance of his political creed of to-day. However much we may disagree with this, the man's earnestness and sincerity must always appeal to our admiration. Of Fenianism, of Parnell, of Gladstone, Tim Healy, John Dillon, Mr. O'Brien writes with that personal knowledge which only he possesses, and, as there never was a time when Englishmen needed to understand the Irish temperament and Irish affairs more than at present, so it can be said as confidently there never was a book more able than Mr. O'Brien's Recollections to help them do so. Within the last few years there has sprung up a new school of nature-writers who, so to speak, see animals and birds have other reasons for existence A Jovial Elephant Indeed! Mr. W. Ralston is a draughtsman who has made a speciality of the light side of sport in India. Each of his page drawings may be regarded as a laughable chapter of accidents. "The Story of the Jovial Elephant" consists of a series of coloured drawings, instinct with humour, which never flags from the start upon a tiger hunt, with a mahout who was not a teetotaller, to the "next morning," when man and beast woke up with what may be called an "arracking headache." The book is dedicated to Mr. Car. Thomas, manager of The Graphic. |