FOOTNOTE:

[1] The more common German name, however, is _Distelfink_

(Thistle-Finch) or _Stieglitz_.

GOLDFISH (_Cyprinus_ or _Carassius auratus_), a small fish belonging to

the Cyprinid family, a native of China but naturalized in other

countries. In the wild state its colours do not differ from those of a

Crucian carp, and like that fish it is tenacious of life and easily

domesticated. Albinos seem to be rather common; and as in other fishes

(for instance, the tench, carp, eel, flounder), the colour of most of

these albinos is a bright orange or golden yellow; occasionally even

this shade of colour is lost, the fish being more or less pure white or

silvery. The Chinese have domesticated these albinos for a long time,

and by careful selection have succeeded in propagating all those strange

varieties, and even monstrosities, which appear in every domestic

animal. In some individuals the dorsal fin is only half its normal

length, in others entirely absent; in others the anal fin has a double

spine; in others all the fins are of nearly double the usual length. The

snout is frequently malformed, giving the head of the fish an appearance

similar to that of a bull-dog. The variety most highly prized has an

extremely short snout, eyes which almost wholly project beyond the

orbit, no dorsal fin, and a very long three- or four-lobed caudal fin

(Telescope-fish).

[Illustration: Telescope-fish.]

The domestication of the goldfish by the Chinese dates back from the

highest antiquity, and they were introduced into Japan at the beginning

of the 16th century; but the date of their importation into Europe is

still uncertain. The great German ichthyologist, M. E. Bloch, thought he

could trace it back in England to the reign of James I., whilst other

authors fix the date at 1691. It appears certain that they were brought

to France, only much later, as a present to Mme de Pompadour, although

the de Goncourts, the historians of the mistresses of Louis XV., have

failed to trace any records of this event. The fish has since spread

over a considerable part of Europe, and in many places it has reverted

to its wild condition. In many parts of south-eastern Asia, in

Mauritius, in North and South Africa, in Madagascar, in the Azores, it

has become thoroughly acclimatized, and successfully competes with the

indigenous fresh-water fishes. It will not thrive in rivers; in large

ponds it readily reverts to the coloration of the original wild stock.

It flourishes best in small tanks and ponds, in which the water is

constantly changing and does not freeze; in such localities, and with a

full supply of food, which consists of weeds, crumbs of bread, bran,

worms, small crustaceans and insects, it attains to a length of from 6

to 12 in., breeding readily, sometimes at different times of the same

year.

GOLDFUSS, GEORG AUGUST (1782-1848), German palaeontologist, born at

Thurnau near Bayreuth on the 18th of April 1782, was educated at

Erlangen, where he graduated Ph.D. in 1804 and became professor of

zoology in 1818. He was subsequently appointed professor of zoology and

mineralogy in the university of Bonn. Aided by Count G. Munster he

issued the important _Petrefacta Germaniae_ (1826-1844), a work which

was intended to illustrate the invertebrate fossils of Germany, but it

was left incomplete after the sponges, corals, crinoids, echinids and

part of the mollusca had been figured. Goldfuss died at Bonn on the 2nd

of October 1848.

GOLDIE, SIR GEORGE DASHWOOD TAUBMAN (1846- ), English administrator,

the founder of Nigeria, was born on the 20th of May 1846 at the Nunnery

in the Isle of Man, being the youngest son of Lieut.-Colonel John

Taubman Goldie-Taubman, speaker of the House of Keys, by his second wife

Caroline, daughter of John E. Hoveden of Hemingford, Cambridgeshire. Sir

George resumed his paternal name, Goldie, by royal licence in 1887. He

was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and for about two

years held a commission in the Royal Engineers. He travelled in all

parts of Africa, gaining an extensive knowledge of the continent, and

first visited the country of the Niger in 1877. He conceived the idea of

adding to the British empire the then little known regions of the lower

and middle Niger, and for over twenty years his efforts were devoted to

the realization of this conception. The method by which he determined to

work was the revival of government by chartered companies within the

empire--a method supposed to be buried with the East India Company. The

first step was to combine all British commercial interests in the Niger,

and this he accomplished in 1879 when the United African Company was

formed. In 1881 Goldie sought a charter from the imperial government

(the 2nd Gladstone ministry). Objections of various kinds were raised.

To meet them the capital of the company (renamed the National African

Company) was increased from L125,000 to L1,000,000, and great energy was

displayed in founding stations on the Niger. At this time French

traders, encouraged by Gambetta, established themselves on the lower

river, thus rendering it difficult for the company to obtain territorial

rights; but the Frenchmen were bought out in 1884, so that at the Berlin

conference on West Africa in 1885 Mr Goldie, present as an expert on

matters relating to the river, was able to announce that on the lower

Niger the British flag alone flew. Meantime the Niger coast line had

been placed under British protection. Through Joseph Thomson, David

Mclntosh, D. W. Sargent, J. Flint, William Wallace, E. Dangerfield and

numerous other agents, over 400 political treaties--drawn up by

Goldie--were made with the chiefs of the lower Niger and the Hausa

states. The scruples of the British government being overcome, a charter

was at length granted (July 1886), the National African Company

becoming the Royal Niger Company, with Lord Aberdare as governor and

Goldie as vice-governor. In 1895, on Lord Aberdare's death, Goldie

became governor of the company, whose destinies he had guided

throughout.

The building up of Nigeria as a British state had to be carried on in

face of further difficulties raised by French travellers with political

missions, and also in face of German opposition. From 1884 to 1890,

Prince Bismarck was a persistent antagonist, and the strenuous efforts

he made to secure for Germany the basin of the lower Niger and Lake Chad

were even more dangerous to Goldie's schemes of empire than the

ambitions of France. Herr E. R. Flegel, who had travelled in Nigeria

during 1882-1884 under the auspices of the British company, was sent out

in 1885 by the newly-formed German Colonial Society to secure treaties

for Germany, which had established itself at Cameroon. After Flegel's

death in 1886 his work was continued by his companion Dr Staudinger,

while Herr Hoenigsberg was despatched to stir up trouble in the occupied

portions of the Company's territory,--or, as he expressed it, "to burst

up the charter." He was finally arrested at Onitsha, and, after trial by

the company's supreme court at Asaba, was expelled the country. Prince

Bismarck then sent out his nephew, Herr von Puttkamer, as German

consul-general to Nigeria, with orders to report on this affair, and

when this report was published in a White Book, Bismarck demanded heavy

damages from the company. Meanwhile Bismarck maintained constant

pressure on the British government to compel the Royal Niger Company to

a division of spheres of influence, whereby Great Britain would have

lost a third, and the most valuable part, of the company's territory.

But he fell from power in March 1890, and in July following Lord

Salisbury concluded the famous "Heligoland" agreement with Germany.

After this event the aggressive action of Germany in Nigeria entirely

ceased, and the door was opened for a final settlement of the

Nigeria-Cameroon frontiers. These negotiations, which resulted in an

agreement in 1893, were initiated by Goldie as a means of arresting the

advance of France into Nigeria from the direction of the Congo. By

conceding to Germany a long but narrow strip of territory between

Adamawa and Lake Chad, to which she had no treaty claims, a barrier was

raised against French expeditions, semi-military and semi-exploratory,

which sought to enter Nigeria from the east. Later French efforts at

aggression were made from the western or Dahomeyan side, despite an

agreement concluded with France in 1890 respecting the northern

frontier.

The hostility of certain Fula princes led the company to despatch, in

1897, an expedition against the Mahommedan states of Nupe and Illorin.

This expedition was organized and personally directed by Goldie and was

completely successful. Internal peace was thus secured, but in the

following year the differences with France in regard to the frontier

line became acute, and compelled the intervention of the British

government. In the negotiations which ensued Goldie was instrumental in

preserving for Great Britain the whole of the navigable stretch of the

lower Niger. It was, however, evidently impossible for a chartered

company to hold its own against the state-supported protectorates of

France and Germany, and in consequence, on the 1st of January 1900, the

Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the British

government for the sum of L865,000. The ceded territory together with

the small Niger Coast Protectorate, already under imperial control, was

formed into the two protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria (see

further NIGERIA).

In 1903-1904, at the request of the Chartered Company of South Africa,

Goldie visited Rhodesia and examined the situation in connexion with the

agitation for self-government by the Rhodesians. In 1902-1903 he was one

of the royal commissioners who inquired into the military preparations

for the war in South Africa (1899-1902) and into the operations up to

the occupation of Pretoria, and in 1905-1906 was a member of the royal

commission which investigated the methods of disposal of war stores

after peace had been made. In 1905 he was elected president of the Royal

Geographical Society and held that office for three years. In 1908 he

was chosen an alderman of the London County Council. Goldie was created

K.C.M.G. in 1887, and a privy councillor in 1898. He became an F.R.S.,

honorary D.C.L. of Oxford University (1897) and honorary LL.D. of

Cambridge (1897). He married in 1870 Matilda Catherine (d. 1898),

daughter of John William Elliott of Wakefield.

GOLDING, ARTHUR (c. 1536-c. 1605), English translator, son of John

Golding of Belchamp St Paul and Halsted, Essex, one of the auditors of

the exchequer, was born probably in London about 1536. His half-sister,

Margaret, married John de Vere, 16th earl of Oxford. In 1549 he was

already in the service of Protector Somerset, and the statement that he

was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, lacks corroboration. He

seems to have resided for some time in the house of Sir William Cecil,

in the Strand, with his nephew, the poet, the 17th earl of Oxford, whose

receiver he was, for two of his dedications are dated from Cecil House.

His chief work is his translation of Ovid. _The Fyrst Fower Bookes of P.

Ovidius Nasos worke, entitled Metamorphosis, translated oute of Latin

into Englishe meter_ (1565), was supplemented in 1567 by a translation

of the fifteen books. Strangely enough the translator of Ovid was a man

of strong Puritan sympathies, and he translated many of the works of

Calvin. To his version of the _Metamorphoses_ he prefixed a long

metrical explanation of his reasons for considering it a work of

edification. He sets forth the moral which he supposes to underlie

certain of the stories, and shows how the pagan machinery may be brought

into line with Christian thought. It was from Golding's pages that many

of the Elizabethans drew their knowledge of classical mythology, and

there is little doubt that Shakespeare was well acquainted with the

book. Golding translated also the _Commentaries_ of Caesar (1565),

Calvin's commentaries on the Psalms (1571), his sermons on the Galatians

and Ephesians, on Deuteronomy and the book of Job, Theodore Beza's

_Tragedie of Abrahams Sacrifice_ (1577) and the _De Beneficiis_ of

Seneca (1578). He completed a translation begun by Sidney from Philippe

de Mornay, _A Worke concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion_

(1604). His only original work is a prose _Discourse_ on the earthquake

of 1580, in which he saw a judgment of God on the wickedness of his

time. He inherited three considerable estates in Essex, the greater part

of which he sold in 1595. The last trace we have of Golding is contained

in an order dated the 25th of July 1605, giving him licence to print

certain of his works.

GOLDINGEN (Lettish, _Kuldiga_), a town of Russia, in the government of

Courland, 55 m. by rail N.E. of Libau, and on Windau river, in 56 deg.

58' N. and 22 deg. E. Pop. (1897) 9733. It has woollen mills, needle and

match factories, breweries and distilleries, a college for teachers, and

ruins of a castle of the Teutonic Knights, built in 1248 and used in the

17th century as the residence of the dukes of Courland.

GOLDMARK, KARL (1832- ), Hungarian composer, was born at

Keszthely-am-Plattensee, in Hungary, on the 18th of May 1832. His

father, a poor cantor in the local Jewish synagogue, was unable to

assist to any extent financially in the development of his son's

talents. Yet in the household much music was made, and on a cheap violin

and home-made flute, constructed by Goldmark himself from reeds cut from

the riverbank, the future composer gave rein to his musical ideas. His

talent was fostered by the village schoolmaster, by whose aid he was

able to enter the music-school of the Oedenburger Verein. Here he

remained but a short time, his success at a school concert finally

determining his parents to allow him to devote himself entirely to

music. In 1844, then, he went to Vienna, where Jansa took up his cause

and eventually obtained for him admission to the conservatorium. For two

years Goldmark worked under Jansa at the violin, and on the outbreak of

the revolution, after studying all the orchestral instruments he

obtained an engagement in the orchestra at Raab. There, on the

capitulation of Raab, he was to have been shot for a spy, and was only

saved at the eleventh hour by the happy arrival of a former colleague.

In 1850 Goldmark left Raab for Vienna, where from his friend Mittrich he

obtained his first real knowledge of the classics. There, too, he

devoted himself to composition. In 1857 Goldmark, who was then engaged

in the Karl-theater band, gave a concert of his own works with such

success that his first quartet attracted very general attention. Then

followed the "Sakuntala" and "Penthesilea" overtures, which show how

Wagner's influence had supervened upon his previous domination by

Mendelssohn, and the delightful "Landliche Hochzeit" symphony, which

carried his fame abroad. Goldmark's reputation was now made, and very

largely increased by the production at Vienna in 1875 of his first and

best opera, _Die Konigin von Saba_. Over this opera he spent seven

years. Its popularity is still almost as great as ever. It was followed

in November 1886, also at Vienna, by _Merlin_, much of which has been

rewritten since then. A third opera, a version of Dickens's _Cricket on

the Hearth_, was given by the Royal Carl Rosa Company in London in 1900.

Goldmark's chamber music has not made much lasting impression, but the

overtures "Im Fruhling," "Prometheus Bound," and "Sapho" are fairly well

known. A "programme" seems essential to him. In opera he is most

certainly at his best, and as an orchestral colourist he ranks among the

very highest.

GOLDONI, CARLO (1707-1793), Italian dramatist, the real founder of

modern Italian comedy, was born at Venice, on the 25th of February 1707,

in a fine house near St Thomas's church. His father Giulio was a native

of Modena. The first playthings of the future writer were puppets which

he made dance; the first books he read were plays,--among others, the

comedies of the Florentine Cicognini. Later he received a still stronger

impression from the _Mandragora_ of Machiavelli. At eight years old he

had tried to sketch a play. His father, meanwhile, had taken his degree

in medicine at Rome and fixed himself at Perugia, where he made his son

join him; but, having soon quarrelled with his colleagues in medicine,

he departed for Chioggia, leaving his son to the care of a philosopher,

Professor Caldini of Rimini. The young Goldoni soon grew tired of his

life at Rimini, and ran away with a Venetian company of players. He

began to study law at Venice, then went to continue the same pursuit at

Pavia, but at that time he was studying the Greek and Latin comic poets

much more and much better than books about law. "I have read over

again," he writes in his own _Memoirs_, "the Greek and Latin poets, and

I have told to myself that I should like to imitate them in their style,

their plots, their precision; but I would not be satisfied unless I

succeeded in giving more interest to my works, happier issues to my

plots, better drawn characters and more genuine comedy." For a satire

entitled _Il Colosso_, which attacked the honour of several families of

Pavia, he was driven from that town, and went first to study with the

jurisconsult Morelli at Udine, then to take his degree in law at Modena.

After having worked some time as clerk in the chanceries of Chioggia and

Feltre, his father being dead, he went to Venice, to exercise there his

profession as a lawyer. But the wish to write for the stage was always

strong in him, and he tried to do so; he made, however, a mistake in his

choice, and began with a tragedy, _Amalasunta_, which was represented at

Milan and proved a failure. In 1734 he wrote another tragedy,

_Belisario_, which, though not much better, chanced nevertheless to

please the public. This first success encouraged him to write other

tragedies, some of which were well received; but the author himself saw

clearly that he had not yet found his proper sphere, and that a radical

dramatic reform was absolutely necessary for the stage. He wished to

create a characteristic comedy in Italy, to follow the example of

Moliere, and to delineate the realities of social life in as natural a

manner as possible. His first essay of this kind was _Momolo Cortesan_

(Momolo the Courtier), written in the Venetian dialect, and based on his

own experience. Other plays followed--some interesting from their

subject, others from the characters; the best of that period are--_Le

Trentadue Disgrazie d' Arlecchino_, _La Notte critica_, _La Bancarotta_,

_La Donna di Garbo_. Having, while consul of Genoa at Venice, been

cheated by a captain of Ragusa, he founded on this his play

_L'Impostore_. At Leghorn he made the acquaintance of the comedian

Medebac, and followed him to Venice, with his company, for which he

began to write his best plays. Once he promised to write sixteen

comedies in a year, and kept his word; among the sixteen are some of his

very best, such as _Il Caffe_, _Il Bugiardo_, _La Pamela_. When he left

the company of Medebac, he passed over to that maintained by the

patrician Vendramin, continuing to write with the greatest facility. In

1761 he was called to Paris, and before leaving Venice he wrote _Una

delle ultime sere di Carnevale_ (One of the Last Nights of Carnival), an

allegorical comedy in which he said good-bye to his country. At the end

of the representation of this play, the theatre resounded with applause,

and with shouts expressive of good wishes. Goldoni, at this proof of

public sympathy, wept as a child. At Paris, during two years, he wrote

comedies for the Italian actors; then he taught Italian to the royal

princesses; and for the wedding of Louis XVI. and of Marie Antoinette he

wrote in French one of his best comedies, _Le Bourru bienfaisant_, which

was a great success. When he retired from Paris to Versailles, the king

made him a gift of 6000 francs, and fixed on him an annual pension of

1200 francs. It was at Versailles he wrote his _Memoirs_, which occupied

him till he reached his eightieth year. The Revolution deprived him all

at once of his modest pension, and reduced him to extreme misery; he

dragged on his unfortunate existence till 1793, and died on the 6th of

February. The day after, on the proposal of Andre Chenier, the

Convention agreed to give the pension back to the poet; and as he had

already died, a reduced allowance was granted to his widow.

The best comedies of Goldoni are: _La Donna di Garbo_, _La Bottega di

Caffe_, _Pamela nubile_, _Le Baruffe chiozzotte_, _I Rusteghi_,

_Todero Brontolon_, _Gli Innamorati_, _Il Ventaglio_, _Il Bugiardo_,

_La Casa nova_, _Il Burbero benefico_, _La Locandiera_. A collected

edition (Venice, 1788) was republished at Florence in 1827. See P. G.

Molmenti, _Carlo Goldoni_ (Venice, 1875); Rabany, _Carlo Goldoni_

(Paris, 1896). The _Memoirs_ were translated into English by John

Black (Boston, 1877). with preface by W. D. Howells.

GOLDS, a Mongolo-Tatar people, living on the Lower Amur in south-eastern

Siberia. Their chief settlements are on the right bank of the Amur and

along the Sungari and Usuri rivers. In physique they are typically

Mongolic. Like the Chinese they wear a pigtail, and from them, too, have

learnt the art of silk embroidery. The Golds live almost entirely on

fish, and are excellent boatmen. They keep large herds of swine and

dogs, which live, like themselves, on fish. Geese, wild duck, eagles,

bears, wolves and foxes are also kept in menageries. There is much

reverence paid to the eagles, and hence the Manchus call the Golds

"Eaglets." Their religion is Shamanism.

See L. Schrenck, _Die Volker des Amurlandes_ (St Petersburg, 1891);

Laufer, "The Amoor Tribes," in _American Anthropologist_ (New York,

1900); E. G. Ravenstein, _The Russians on the Amur_ (1861).

GOLDSBORO, a city and the county-seat of Wayne county, North Carolina,

U.S.A., on the Neuse river, about 50 m. S.E. of Raleigh. Pop. (1890)

4017; (1900) 5877 (2520 negroes); (1910) 6107. It is served by the

Southern, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Norfolk & Southern railways.

The surrounding country produces large quantities of tobacco, cotton and

grain, and trucking is an important industry, the city being a

distributing point for strawberries and various kinds of vegetables. The

city's manufactures include cotton goods, knit goods, cotton-seed oil,

agricultural implements, lumber and furniture. Goldsboro is the seat of

the Eastern insane asylum (for negroes) and of an Odd Fellows' orphan

home. The municipality owns and operates its water-works and

electric-lighting plant. Goldsboro was settled in 1838, and was first

incorporated in 1841. In the campaign of 1865 Goldsboro was the point of

junction of the Union armies under generals Sherman and Schofield,

previous to the final advance to Greensboro.

GOLDSCHMIDT, HERMANN (1802-1866), German painter and astronomer, was the

son of a Jewish merchant, and was born at Frankfort on the 17th of June

1802. He for ten years assisted his father in his business; but, his

love of art having been awakened while journeying in Holland, he in 1832

began the study of painting at Munich under Cornelius and Schnorr, and

in 1836 established himself at Paris, where he painted a number of

pictures of more than average merit, among which may be mentioned the

"Cumaean Sibyl" (1844); an "Offering to Venus" (1845); a "View of Rome"

(1849); the "Death of Romeo and Juliet" (1857); and several Alpine

landscapes. In 1847 he began to devote his attention to astronomy; and

from 1852 to 1861 he discovered fourteen asteroids between Mars and

Jupiter, on which account he received the grand astronomical prize from

the Academy of Sciences. His observations of the protuberances on the

sun, made during the total eclipse on the 10th of July 1860, are

included in the work of Madler on the eclipse, published in 1861.

Goldschmidt died at Fontainebleau on the 26th of August 1866.

GOLDSMID, the name of a family of Anglo-Jewish bankers sprung from Aaron

Goldsmid (d. 1782), a Dutch merchant who settled in England about 1763.

Two of his sons, Benjamin Goldsmid (c. 1753-1808) and Abraham Goldsmid

(c. 1756-1810), began business together about 1777 as bill-brokers in

London, and soon became great powers in the money market, during the

Napoleonic war, through their dealings with the government. Abraham

Goldsmid was in 1810 joint contractor with the Barings for a government

loan, but owing to a depreciation of the scrip he was forced into

bankruptcy and committed suicide. His brother, in a fit of depression,

had similarly taken his own life two years before. Both were noted for

their public and private generosity, and Benjamin had a part in founding

the Royal Naval Asylum. Benjamin left four sons, the youngest being

Lionel Prager Goldsmid; Abraham a daughter, Isabel.

Their nephew, Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, Bart. (1778-1859), was born in

London, and began in business with a firm of bullion brokers to the Bank

of England and the East India Company. He amassed a large fortune, and

was made Baron da Palmeira by the Portuguese government in 1846 for

services rendered In settling a monetary dispute between Portugal and

Brazil, but he is chiefly known for his efforts to obtain the

emancipation of the Jews in England and for his part in founding

University College, London. The Jewish Disabilities Bill, first

introduced in Parliament by Sir Robert Grant in 1830, owed its final

passage to Goldsmid's energetic work. He helped to establish the

University College hospital in 1834, serving as its treasurer for

eighteen years, and also aided in the efforts to obtain reform in the

English penal code. Moreover he assisted by his capital and his

enterprise to build part of the English southern railways and also the

London docks. In 1841 he became the first Jewish baronet, the honour

being conferred upon him by Lord Melbourne. He had married his cousin

Isabel (see above), and their second son was Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid,

Bart. (1808-1878), born in London, and called to the bar at Lincoln's

Inn in 1833 (the first Jew to become an English barrister; Q.C. 1858).

After the passing of the Jewish Disabilities Bill, in which he had aided

his father with a number of pamphlets that attracted great attention, he

entered Parliament in 1860 (having succeeded to the baronetcy) as member

for Reading, and represented that constituency until his death. He was

strenuous on behalf of the Jewish religion, and the founder of the great

Jews' Free School. He was a munificent contributor to charities and

especially to the endowment of University College. He, like his father,

married a cousin, and, dying without issue, was succeeded in the

baronetcy by his nephew Sir Julian Goldsmid, Bart. (1838-1896), son of

Frederick David Goldsmid (1812-1866), long M.P. for Honiton. Sir Julian

was for many years in Parliament, and his wealth, ability and influence

made him a personage of considerable importance. He was eventually made

a privy councillor. He had eight daughters, but no son, and his entailed

property passed to his relation, Mr d'Avigdor, his house in Piccadilly

being converted into the Isthmian Club.

Another distinguished member of the same family, Sir Frederic John

Goldsmid (1818-1908), son of Lionel Prager Goldsmid (see above), was

educated at King's College, London, and entering the Madras army in 1839

served in the China War of 1840-41, with the Turkish troops in eastern

Crimea in 1855-56, and was given political employment by the Indian

government. He received the thanks of the commander-in-chief and of the

war office for services during the Egyptian campaign, and was retired a

major-general in 1875. Sir Frederic Goldsmid's name is, however,

associated less with military service than with much valuable work in

exploration and in surveying, for which he repeatedly received the

thanks of government. From 1865 to 1870 he was director-general of the

Indo-European telegraph, and carried through the telegraph convention

with Persia; and between 1870 and 1872, as commissioner, he settled with

Persia the difficult questions of the Perso-Baluch and Perso-Afghan

boundaries. In the course of his work he had to travel extensively, and

he followed this up by various responsible missions connected with

emigration questions. In 1881-1882 he was in Egypt, as controller of the

Daira Sanieh, and doing other miscellaneous military work; and in 1883

he went to the Congo, on behalf of the king of the Belgians, as one of

the organizers of the new state, but had to return on account of

illness. From his early years he had made studies of several Eastern

languages, and he ranked among the foremost Orientalists of his day. In

1886 he was president of the geographical section of the British

Association meeting held at Birmingham. He had married in 1849, and had

two sons and four daughters. In 1871 he was made a K.C.S.I. Besides

important contributions to the 9th edition of the _Encyclopaedia

Britannica_ and many periodicals, he wrote an excellent and

authoritative biography of Sir James Outram (2 vols., 1880).

A sister of the last-named married Henry Edward Goldsmid (1812-1855), an

eminent Indian civil servant, son of Edward Goldsmid; his reform of the

revenue system in Bombay, and introduction of a new system, established

after his death, through his reports in 1840-1847, and his devoted

labour in land-surveys, were of the highest importance to western India,

and established his memory there as a public benefactor.

GOLDSMITH, LEWIS (c. 1763-1846), Anglo-French publicist, of

Portuguese-Jewish extraction, was born near London about 1763. Having

published in 1801 _The Crimes of Cabinets, or a Review of the Plans and

Aggressions for Annihilating the Liberties of France, and the

Dismemberment of her Territories_, an attack on the military policy of

Pitt, he moved, in 1802, from England to Paris. Talleyrand introduced

him to Napoleon, who arranged for him to establish in Paris an English

tri-weekly, the _Argus_, which was to review English affairs from the

French point of view. According to his own account, he was in 1803

entrusted with a mission to obtain from the head of the French royal

family, afterwards Louis XVIII., a renunciation of his claims to the

throne of France, in return for the throne of Poland. The offer was

declined, and Goldsmith says that he then received instructions to

kidnap Louis and kill him if he resisted, but, instead of executing

these orders, he revealed the plot. He was, nevertheless, employed by

Napoleon on various other secret service missions till 1807, when his

Republican sympathies began to wane. In 1809 he returned to England,

where he was at first imprisoned but soon released; and he became a

notary in London. In 1811, being now violently anti-republican, he

founded a Sunday newspaper, the _Anti-Gallican Monitor_ and

_Anti-Corsican Chronicle_, subsequently known as the _British Monitor_,

in which he denounced the French Revolution. In 1811 he proposed that a

public subscription should be raised to put a price on Napoleon's head,

but this suggestion was strongly reprobated by the British government.

In the same year he published _Secret History of the Cabinet of

Bonaparte and Recueil des manifestes, or a Collection of the Decrees of

Napoleon Bonaparte_, and in 1812 _Secret History of Bonaparte's

Diplomacy_. Goldsmith alleged that in the latter year he was offered

L200,000 by Napoleon to discontinue his attacks. In 1815 he published

_An Appeal to the Governments of Europe on the Necessity of bringing

Napoleon Bonaparte to a Public Trial_. In 1825 he again settled down in

Paris, and in 1832 published his _Statistics of France_. His only child,

Georgiana, became, in 1837, the second wife of Lord Lyndhurst. He died

in Paris on the 6th of January 1846.

GOLDSMITH, OLIVER (1728-1774), English poet, playwright, novelist and

man of letters, came of a Protestant and Saxon family which had long

been settled in Ireland. He is usually said to have been born at Pallas

or Pallasmore, Co. Longford; but recent investigators have contended,

with much show of probability, that his true birthplace was Smith-Hill

House, Elphin, Roscommon, the residence of his mother's father, the Rev.

Oliver Jones. His father, Charles Goldsmith, lived at Pallas, supporting

with difficulty his wife and children on what he could earn, partly as a

curate and partly as a farmer.

While Oliver was still a child his father was presented to the living of

Kilkenny West, in the county of West Meath. This was worth about L200 a

year. The family accordingly quitted their cottage at Pallas for a

spacious house on a frequented road, near the village of Lissoy. Here

the boy was taught his letters by a relative and dependent, Elizabeth

Delap, and was sent in his seventh year to a village school kept by an

old quartermaster on half-pay, who professed to teach nothing but

reading, writing and arithmetic, but who had an inexhaustible fund of

stories about ghosts, banshees and fairies, about the great Rapparee

chiefs, Baldearg O'Donnell and galloping Hogan, and about the exploits

of Peterborough and Stanhope, the surprise of Monjuich and the glorious

disaster of Brihuega. This man must have been of the Protestant

religion; but he was of the aboriginal race, and not only spoke the

Irish language, but could pour forth unpremeditated Irish verses. Oliver

early became, and through life continued to be, a passionate admirer of

the Irish music, and especially of the compositions of Carolan, some of

the last notes of whose harp he heard. It ought to be added that Oliver,

though by birth one of the Englishry, and though connected by numerous

ties with the Established Church, never showed the least sign of that

contemptuous antipathy with which, in his days, the ruling minority in

Ireland too generally regarded the subject majority. So far indeed was

he from sharing in the opinions and feelings of the caste to which he

belonged that he conceived an aversion to the Glorious and Immortal

Memory, and, even when George III. was on the throne, maintained that

nothing but the restoration of the banished dynasty could save the

country.

From the humble academy kept by the old soldier Goldsmith was removed in

his ninth year. He went to several grammar-schools, and acquired some

knowledge of the ancient languages. His life at this time seems to have

been far from happy. He had, as appears from the admirable portrait of

him by Reynolds at Knole, features harsh even to ugliness. The small-pox

had set its mark on him with more than usual severity. His stature was

small, and his limbs ill put together. Among boys little tenderness is

shown to personal defects; and the ridicule excited by poor Oliver's

appearance was heightened by a peculiar simplicity and a disposition to

blunder which he retained to the last. He became the common butt of boys

and masters, was pointed at as a fright in the play-ground, and flogged

as a dunce in the schoolroom. When he had risen to eminence, those who

had once derided him ransacked their memory for the events of his early

years, and recited repartees and couplets which had dropped from him,

and which, though little noticed at the time, were supposed, a quarter

of a century later, to indicate the powers which produced the _Vicar of

Wakefield_ and the _Deserted Village_.

On the 11th of June 1744, being then in his sixteenth year, Oliver went

up to Trinity College, Dublin, as a sizar. The sizars paid nothing for

food and tuition, and very little for lodging; but they had to perform

some menial services from which they have long been relieved. Goldsmith

was quartered, not alone, in a garret of what was then No. 35 in a range

of buildings which has long since disappeared. His name, scrawled by

himself on one of its window-panes is still preserved in the college

library. From such garrets many men of less parts than his have made

their way to the woolsack or to the episcopal bench. But Goldsmith,

while he suffered all the humiliations, threw away all the advantages of

his situation. He neglected the studies of the place, stood low at the

examinations, was turned down to the bottom of his class for playing the

buffoon in the lecture-room, was severely reprimanded for pumping on a

constable, and was caned by a brutal tutor for giving a ball in the

attic storey of the college to some gay youths and damsels from the

city.

While Oliver was leading at Dublin a life divided between squalid

distress and squalid dissipation, his father died, leaving a mere

pittance. In February 1749 the youth obtained his bachelor's degree,

and left the university. During some time the humble dwelling to which

his widowed mother had retired was his home. He was now in his

twenty-first year; it was necessary that he should do something; and his

education seemed to have fitted him to do nothing but to dress himself

in gaudy colours, of which he was as fond as a magpie, to take a hand at

cards, to sing Irish airs, to play the flute, to angle in summer and to

tell ghost stories by the fire in winter. He tried five or six

professions in turn without success. He applied for ordination; but, as

he applied in scarlet clothes, he was speedily turned out of the

episcopal palace. He then became tutor in an opulent family, but soon

quitted his situation in consequence of a dispute about pay. Then he

determined to emigrate to America. His relations, with much

satisfaction, saw him set out for Cork on a good horse, with L30 in his

pocket. But in six weeks he came back on a miserable hack, without a

penny, and informed his mother that the ship in which he had taken his

passage, having got a fair wind while he was at a party of pleasure, had

sailed without him. Then he resolved to study the law. A generous uncle,

Mr Contarine, advanced L50. With this sum Goldsmith went to Dublin, was

enticed into a gaming-house and lost every shilling. He then thought of

medicine. A small purse was made up; and in his twenty-fourth year he

was sent to Edinburgh. At Edinburgh he passed eighteen months in nominal

attendance on lectures, and picked up some superficial information about

chemistry and natural history. Thence he went to Leiden, still

pretending to study physic. He left that celebrated university, the

third university at which he had resided, in his twenty-seventh year,

without a degree, with the merest smattering of medical knowledge, and

with no property but his clothes and his flute. His flute, however,

proved a useful friend. He rambled on foot through Flanders, France and

Switzerland, playing tunes which everywhere set the peasantry dancing,

and which often procured for him a supper and a bed. He wandered as far

as Italy. His musical performances, indeed, were not to the taste of the

Italians; but he contrived to live on the alms which he obtained at the

gates of convents. It should, however, be observed that the stories

which he told about this part of his life ought to be received with

great caution; for strict veracity was never one of his virtues; and a

man who is ordinarily inaccurate in narration is likely to be more than

ordinarily inaccurate when he talks about his own travels. Goldsmith,

indeed, was so regardless of truth as to assert in print that he was

present at a most interesting conversation between Voltaire and

Fontenelle, and that this conversation took place at Paris. Now it is

certain that Voltaire never was within a hundred leagues of Paris during

the whole time which Goldsmith passed on the continent.

In February 1756 the wanderer landed at Dover, without a shilling,

without a friend and without a calling. He had indeed, if his own

unsupported evidence may be trusted, obtained a doctor's degree on the

continent; but this dignity proved utterly useless to him. In England

his flute was not in request; there were no convents; and he was forced

to have recourse to a series of desperate expedients. There is a

tradition that he turned strolling player. He pounded drugs and ran

about London with phials for charitable chemists. He asserted, upon one

occasion, that he had lived "among the beggars in Axe Lane." He was for

a time usher of a school, and felt the miseries and humiliations of this

situation so keenly that he thought it a promotion to be permitted to

earn his bread as a bookseller's hack; but he soon found the new yoke

more galling than the old one, and was glad to become an usher again. He

obtained a medical appointment in the service of the East India Company;

but the appointment was speedily revoked. Why it was revoked we are not

told. The subject was one on which he never liked to talk. It is

probable that he was incompetent to perform the duties of the place.

Then he presented himself at Surgeons' Hall for examination, as "mate to

an hospital." Even to so humble a post he was found unequal. Nothing

remained but to return to the lowest drudgery of literature. Goldsmith

took a room in a tiny square off Ludgate Hill, to which he had to climb

from Sea-coal Lane by a dizzy ladder of flagstones called Breakneck

Steps. Green Arbour Court and the ascent have long disappeared. Here, at

thirty, the unlucky adventurer sat down to toil like a galley slave.

Already, in 1758, during his first bondage to letters, he had translated

Marteilhe's remarkable _Memoirs of a Protestant, Condemned to the

Galleys of France for his Religion_. In the years that now succeeded he

sent to the press some things which have survived, and many which have

perished. He produced articles for reviews, magazines and newspapers;

children's books, which, bound in gilt paper and adorned with hideous

woodcuts, appeared in the window of Newbery's once far-famed shop at the

corner of Saint Paul's churchyard; _An Inquiry into the State of Polite

Learning in Europe_, which, though of little or no value, is still

reprinted among his works; a volume of essays entitled _The Bec; a Life

of Beau Nash_; a superficial and incorrect, but very readable, _History

of England_, in a series of letters purporting to be addressed by a

nobleman to his son; and some very lively and amusing sketches of London

Society in another series of letters purporting to be addressed by a

Chinese traveller to his friends. All these works were anonymous; but

some of them were well known to be Goldsmith's; and he gradually rose in

the estimation of the booksellers for whom he drudged. He was, indeed,

emphatically a popular writer. For accurate research or grave

disquisition he was not well qualified by nature or by education. He

knew nothing accurately; his reading had been desultory; nor had he

meditated deeply on what he had read. He had seen much of the world; but

he had noticed and retained little more of what he had seen than some

grotesque incidents and characters which had happened to strike his

fancy. But, though his mind was very scantily stored with materials, he

used what materials he had in such a way as to produce a wonderful

effect. There have been many greater writers; but perhaps no writer was

ever more uniformly agreeable. His style was always pure and easy, and,

on proper occasions, pointed and energetic. His narratives were always

amusing, his descriptions always picturesque, his humour rich and

joyous, yet not without an occasional tinge of amiable sadness. About

everything that he wrote, serious or sportive, there was a certain

natural grace and decorum, hardly to be expected from a man a great part

of whose life had been passed among thieves and beggars, street-walkers

and merryandrews, in those squalid dens which are the reproach of great

capitals.

As his name gradually became known, the circle of his acquaintance

widened. He was introduced to Johnson, who was then considered as the

first of living English writers; to Reynolds, the first of English

painters; and to Burke, who had not yet entered parliament, but had

distinguished himself greatly by his writings and by the eloquence of

his conversation. With these eminent men Goldsmith became intimate. In

1763 he was one of the nine original members of that celebrated

fraternity which has sometimes been called the Literary Club, but which

has always disclaimed that epithet, and still glories in the simple name

of the Club.

By this date Goldsmith had quitted his miserable dwelling at the top of

Breakneck Steps, and, after living for some time at No. 6 Wine Office

Court, Fleet Street, had moved into the Temple. But he was still often

reduced to pitiable shifts, the most popular of which is connected with

the sale of his solitary novel, the _Vicar of Wakefield_. Towards the

close of 1764(?) his rent is alleged to have been so long in arrear that

his landlady one morning called in the help of a sheriff's officer. The

debtor, in great perplexity, despatched a messenger to Johnson; and

Johnson, always friendly, though often surly, sent back the messenger

with a guinea, and promised to follow speedily. He came, and found that

Goldsmith had changed the guinea, and was railing at the landlady over a

bottle of Madeira. Johnson put the cork into the bottle, and entreated

his friend to consider calmly how money was to be procured. Goldsmith

said that he had a novel ready for the press. Johnson glanced at the

manuscript, saw that there were good things in it, took it to a

bookseller, sold it for L60 and soon returned with the money. The rent

was paid; and the sheriff's officer withdrew. (Unfortunately, however,

for this time-honoured version of the circumstances, it has of late

years been discovered that as early as October 1762 Goldsmith had

already sold a third of the _Vicar_ to one Benjamin Collins of

Salisbury, a printer, by whom it was eventually printed for F. Newbery,

and it is difficult to reconcile this fact with Johnson's narrative.)

But before the _Vicar of Wakefield_ appeared in 1766, came the great

crisis of Goldsmith's literary life. In Christmas week 1764 he published

a poem, entitled the _Traveller_. It was the first work to which he had

put his name, and it at once raised him to the rank of a legitimate

English classic. The opinion of the most skilful critics was that

nothing finer had appeared in verse since the fourth book of the

_Dunciad_. In one respect the _Traveller_ differs from all Goldsmith's

other writings. In general his designs were bad, and his execution good.

In the _Traveller_ the execution, though deserving of much praise, is

far inferior to the design. No philosophical poem, ancient or modern,

has a plan so noble, and at the same time so simple. An English

wanderer, seated on a crag among the Alps, near the point where three

great countries meet, looks down on the boundless prospect, reviews his

long pilgrimage, recalls the varieties of scenery, of climate, of

government, of religion, of national character, which he has observed,

and comes to the conclusion, just or unjust, that our happiness depends

little on political institutions, and much on the temper and regulation

of our own minds.

While the fourth edition of the _Traveller_ was on the counters of the

booksellers, the _Vicar of Wakefield_ appeared, and rapidly obtained a

popularity which has lasted down to our own time, and which is likely to

last as long as our language. The fable is indeed one of the worst that

ever was constructed. It wants, not merely that probability which ought

to be found in a tale of common English life, but that consistency which

ought to be found even in the wildest fiction about witches, giants and

fairies. But the earlier chapters have all the sweetness of pastoral

poetry, together with all the vivacity of comedy. Moses and his

spectacles, the vicar and his monogamy, the sharper and his cosmogony,

the squire proving from Aristotle that relatives are related, Olivia

preparing herself for the arduous task of converting a rakish lover by

studying the controversy between Robinson Crusoe and Friday, the great

ladies with their scandal about Sir Tomkyn's amours and Dr Burdock's

verses, and Mr Burchell with his "Fudge," have caused as much harmless

mirth as has ever been caused by matter packed into so small a number of

pages. The latter part of the tale is unworthy of the beginning. As we

approach the catastrophe, the absurdities lie thicker and thicker, and

the gleams of pleasantry become rarer and rarer.

The success which had attended Goldsmith as a novelist emboldened him to

try his fortune as a dramatist. He wrote the _Good Natur'd Man_, a piece

which had a worse fate than it deserved. Garrick refused to produce it

at Drury Lane. It was acted at Covent Garden in January 1768, but was

coldly received. The author, however, cleared by his benefit nights, and

by the sale of the copyright, no less than L500, five times as much as

he had made by the _Traveller_ and the _Vicar of Wakefield_ together.

The plot of the _Good Natur'd Man_ is, like almost all Goldsmith's

plots, very ill constructed. But some passages are exquisitely

ludicrous,--much more ludicrous indeed than suited the taste of the town

at that time. A canting, mawkish play, entitled _False Delicacy_, had

just been produced, and sentimentality was all the mode. During some

years more tears were shed at comedies than at tragedies; and a

pleasantry which moved the audience to anything more than a grave smile

was reprobated as low. It is not strange, therefore, that the very best

scene in the _Good Natur'd Man_, that in which Miss Richland finds her

lover attended by the bailiff and the bailiff's follower in full court

dresses, should have been mercilessly hissed, and should have been

omitted after the first night, not to be restored for several years.

In May 1770 appeared the _Deserted Village_. In mere diction and

versification this celebrated poem is fully equal, perhaps superior, to

the _Traveller_; and it is generally preferred to the _Traveller_ by

that large class of readers who think, with Bayes in the _Rehearsal_,

that the only use of a plot is to bring in fine things. More discerning

judges, however, while they admire the beauty of the details, are

shocked by one unpardonable fault which pervades the whole. The fault

which we mean is not that theory about wealth and luxury which has so

often been censured by political economists. The theory is indeed false;

but the poem, considered merely as a poem, is not necessarily the worse

on that account. The finest poem in the Latin language--indeed, the

finest didactic poem in any language--was written in defence of the

silliest and meanest of all systems of natural and moral philosophy. A

poet may easily be pardoned for reasoning ill; but he cannot be pardoned

for describing ill, for observing the world in which he lives so

carelessly that his portraits bear no resemblance to the originals, for

exhibiting as copies from real life monstrous combinations of things

which never were and never could be found together. What would be

thought of a painter who should mix August and January in one landscape,

who should introduce a frozen river into a harvest scene? Would it be a

sufficient defence of such a picture to say that every part was

exquisitely coloured, that the green hedges, the apple-trees loaded with

fruit, the waggons reeling under the yellow sheaves, and the sun-burned

reapers wiping their foreheads were very fine, and that the ice and the

boys sliding were also very fine? To such a picture the _Deserted

Village_ bears a great resemblance. It is made up of incongruous parts.

The village in its happy days is a true English village. The village in

its decay is an Irish village. The felicity and the misery which

Goldsmith has brought close together belong to two different countries

and to two different stages in the progress of society. He had assuredly

never seen in his native island such a rural paradise, such a seat of

plenty, content and tranquillity, as his Auburn. He had assuredly never

seen in England all the inhabitants of such a paradise turned out of

their homes in one day and forced to emigrate in a body to America. The

hamlet he had probably seen in Kent; the ejectment he had probably seen

in Munster; but by joining the two, he has produced something which

never was and never will be seen in any part of the world.

In 1773 Goldsmith tried his chance at Covent Garden with a second play,

_She Stoops to Conquer_. The manager was, not without great difficulty,

induced to bring this piece out. The sentimental comedy still reigned,

and Goldsmith's comedies were not sentimental. The _Good Natur'd Man_

had been too funny to succeed; yet the mirth of the _Good Natur'd Man_

was sober when compared with the rich drollery of _She Stoops to

Conquer_, which is, in truth, an incomparable farce in five acts. On

this occasion, however, genius triumphed. Pit, boxes and galleries were

in a constant roar of laughter. If any bigoted admirer of Kelly and

Cumberland ventured to hiss or groan, he was speedily silenced by a

general cry of "turn him out," or "throw him over." Later generations

have confirmed the verdict which was pronounced on that night.

While Goldsmith was writing the _Deserted Village_ and _She Stoops to

Conquer_, he was employed on works of a very different kind--works from

which he derived little reputation but much profit. He compiled for the

use of schools a _History of Rome_, by which he made L250; a _History of

England_, by which he made L500; a _History of Greece_, for which he

received L250; a _Natural History_, for which the booksellers covenanted

to pay him 800 guineas. These works he produced without any elaborate

research, by merely selecting, abridging and translating into his own

clear, pure and flowing language, what he found in books well known to

the world, but too bulky or too dry for boys and girls. He committed

some strange blunders, for he knew nothing with accuracy. Thus, in his

_History of England_, he tells us that Naseby is in Yorkshire; nor did

he correct this mistake when the book was reprinted. He was very nearly

hoaxed into putting into the _History of Greece_ an account of a battle

between Alexander the Great and Montezuma. In his _Animated Nature_ he

relates, with faith and with perfect gravity, all the most absurd lies

which he could find in books of travels about gigantic Patagonians,

monkeys that preach sermons, nightingales that repeat long

conversations. "If he can tell a horse from a cow," said Johnson, "that

is the extent of his knowledge of zoology." How little Goldsmith was

qualified to write about the physical sciences is sufficiently proved by

two anecdotes. He on one occasion denied that the sun is longer in the

northern than in the southern signs. It was vain to cite the authority

of Maupertuis. "Maupertuis!" he cried, "I understand those matters

better than Maupertuis." On another occasion he, in defiance of the

evidence of his own senses, maintained obstinately, and even angrily,

that he chewed his dinner by moving his upper jaw.

Yet, ignorant as Goldsmith was, few writers have done more to make the

first steps in the laborious road to knowledge easy and pleasant. His

compilations are widely distinguished from the compilations of ordinary

bookmakers. He was a great, perhaps an unequalled, master of the arts of

selection and condensation. In these respects his histories of Rome and

of England, and still more his own abridgments of these histories, well

deserved to be studied. In general nothing is less attractive than an

epitome; but the epitomes of Goldsmith, even when most concise, are

always amusing; and to read them is considered by intelligent children

not as a task but as a pleasure.

Goldsmith might now be considered as a prosperous man. He had the means

of living in comfort, and even in what to one who had so often slept in

barns and on bulks must have been luxury. His fame was great and was

constantly rising. He lived in what was intellectually far the best

society of the kingdom, in a society in which no talent or

accomplishment was wanting, and in which the art of conversation was

cultivated with splendid success. There probably were never four talkers

more admirable in four different ways than Johnson, Burke, Beauclerk and

Garrick; and Goldsmith was on terms of intimacy with all the four. He

aspired to share in their colloquial renown, but never was ambition more

unfortunate. It may seem strange that a man who wrote with so much

perspicuity, vivacity and grace should have been, whenever he took a

part in conversation, an empty, noisy, blundering rattle. But on this

point the evidence is overwhelming. So extraordinary was the contrast

between Goldsmith's published works and the silly things which he said,

that Horace Walpole described him as an inspired idiot. "Noll," said

Garrick, "wrote like an angel, and talked like poor Poll." Charnier

declared that it was a hard exercise of faith to believe that so foolish

a chatterer could have really written the _Traveller_. Even Boswell

could say, with contemptuous compassion, that he liked very well to hear

honest Goldsmith run on. "Yes, sir," said Johnson, "but he should not

like to hear himself." Minds differ as rivers differ. There are

transparent and sparkling rivers from which it is delightful to drink as

they flow; to such rivers the minds of such men as Burke and Johnson may

be compared. But there are rivers of which the water when first drawn is

turbid and noisome, but becomes pellucid as crystal and delicious to the

taste, if it be suffered to stand till it has deposited a sediment; and

such a river is a type of the mind of Goldsmith. His first thoughts on

every subject were confused even to absurdity, but they required only a

little time to work themselves clear. When he wrote they had that time,

and therefore his readers pronounced him a man of genius; but when he

talked he talked nonsense and made himself the laughing-stock of his

hearers. He was painfully sensible of his inferiority in conversation;

he felt every failure keenly; yet he had not sufficient judgment and

self-command to hold his tongue. His animal spirits and vanity were

always impelling him to try to do the one thing which he could not do.

After every attempt he felt that he had exposed himself, and writhed

with shame and vexation; yet the next moment he began again.

His associates seem to have regarded him with kindness, which, in spite

of their admiration of his writings, was not unmixed with contempt. In

truth, there was in his character much to love, but very little to

respect. His heart was soft even to weakness; he was so generous that

he quite forgot to be just; he forgave injuries so readily that he might

be said to invite them, and was so liberal to beggars that he had

nothing left for his tailor and his butcher. He was vain, sensual,

frivolous, profuse, improvident. One vice of a darker shade was imputed

to him, envy. But there is not the least reason to believe that this bad

passion, though it sometimes made him wince and utter fretful

exclamations, ever impelled him to injure by wicked arts the reputation

of any of his rivals. The truth probably is that he was not more

envious, but merely less prudent, than his neighbours. His heart was on

his lips. All those small jealousies, which are but too common among men

of letters, but which a man of letters who is also a man of the world

does his best to conceal, Goldsmith avowed with the simplicity of a

child. When he was envious, instead of affecting indifference, instead

of damning with faint praise, instead of doing injuries slyly and in the

dark, he told everybody that he was envious. "Do not, pray, do not, talk

of Johnson in such terms," he said to Boswell; "you harrow up my very

soul." George Steevens and Cumberland were men far too cunning to say

such a thing. They would have echoed the praises of the man whom they

envied, and then have sent to the newspapers anonymous libels upon him.

Both what was good and what was bad in Goldsmith's character was to his

associates a perfect security that he would never commit such villainy.

He was neither ill-natured enough, nor long-headed enough, to be guilty

of any malicious act which required contrivance and disguise.

Goldsmith has sometimes been represented as a man of genius, cruelly

treated by the world, and doomed to struggle with difficulties, which at

last broke his heart. But no representation can be more remote from the

truth. He did, indeed, go through much sharp misery before he had done

anything considerable in literature. But after his name had appeared on

the title-page of the _Traveller_, he had none but himself to blame for

his distresses. His average income, during the last seven years of his

life, certainly exceeded L400 a year, and L400 a year ranked, among the

incomes of that day, at least as high as L800 a year would rank at

present. A single man living in the Temple, with L400 a year, might then

be called opulent. Not one in ten of the young gentlemen of good

families who were studying the law there had so much. But all the wealth

which Lord Clive had brought from Bengal and Sir Lawrence Dundas from

Germany, joined together, would not have sufficed for Goldsmith. He

spent twice as much as he had. He wore fine clothes, gave dinners of

several courses, paid court to venal beauties. He had also, it should be

remembered, to the honour of his heart, though not of his head, a

guinea, or five, or ten, according to the state of his purse, ready for

any tale of distress, true or false. But it was not in dress or

feasting, in promiscuous amours or promiscuous charities, that his chief

expense lay. He had been from boyhood a gambler, and at once the most

sanguine and the most unskilful of gamblers. For a time he put off the

day of inevitable ruin by temporary expedients. He obtained advances

from booksellers by promising to execute works which he never began. But

at length this source of supply failed. He owed more than L2000; and he

saw no hope of extrication from his embarrassments. His spirits and

health gave way. He was attacked by a nervous fever, which he thought

himself competent to treat. It would have been happy for him if his

medical skill had been appreciated as justly by himself as by others.

Notwithstanding the degree which he pretended to have received on the

continent, he could procure no patients. "I do not practise," he once

said; "I make it a rule to prescribe only for my friends." "Pray, dear

Doctor," said Beauclerk, "alter your rule; and prescribe only for your

enemies." Goldsmith, now, in spite of this excellent advice, prescribed

for himself. The remedy aggravated the malady. The sick man was induced

to call in real physicians; and they at one time imagined that they had

cured the disease. Still his weakness and restlessness continued. He

could get no sleep. He could take no food. "You are worse," said one of

his medical attendants, "than you should be from the degree of fever

which you have. Is your mind at ease?" "No; it is not," were the last

recorded words of Oliver Goldsmith. He died on the 4th of April 1774, in

his forty-sixth year. He was laid in the churchyard of the Temple; but

the spot was not marked by any inscription and is now forgotten. The

coffin was followed by Burke and Reynolds. Both these great men were

sincere mourners. Burke, when he heard of Goldsmith's death, had burst

into a flood of tears. Reynolds had been so much moved by the news that

he had flung aside his brush and palette for the day.

A short time after Goldsmith's death, a little poem appeared, which

will, as long as our language lasts, associate the names of his two

illustrious friends with his own. It has already been mentioned that he

sometimes felt keenly the sarcasm which his wild blundering talk brought

upon him. He was, not long before his last illness, provoked into

retaliating. He wisely betook himself to his pen; and at that weapon he

proved himself a match for all his assailants together. Within a small

compass he drew with a singularly easy and vigorous pencil the

characters of nine or ten of his intimate associates. Though this little

work did not receive his last touches, it must always be regarded as a

masterpiece. It is impossible, however, not to wish that four or five

likenesses which have no interest for posterity were wanting to that

noble gallery, and that their places were supplied by sketches of

Johnson and Gibbon, as happy and vivid as the sketches of Burke and

Garrick.

Some of Goldsmith's friends and admirers honoured him with a cenotaph in

Westminster Abbey. Nollekens was the sculptor, and Johnson wrote the

inscription. It is much to be lamented that Johnson did not leave to

posterity a more durable and a more valuable memorial of his friend. A

life of Goldsmith would have been an inestimable addition to the Lives

of the Poets. No man appreciated Goldsmith's writings more justly than

Johnson; no man was better acquainted with Goldsmith's character and

habits; and no man was more competent to delineate with truth and spirit

the peculiarities of a mind in which great powers were found in company

with great weaknesses. But the list of poets to whose works Johnson was

requested by the booksellers to furnish prefaces ended with Lyttelton,

who died in 1773. The line seems to have been drawn expressly for the

purpose of excluding the person whose portrait would have most fitly

closed the series. Goldsmith, however, has been fortunate in his

biographers. (M.)

Goldsmith's life has been written by Prior (1837), by Washington

Irving (1844-1849), and by John Forster (1848, 2nd ed. 1854). The

diligence of Prior deserves great praise; the style of Washington

Irving is always pleasing; but the highest place must, in justice, be

assigned to the eminently interesting work of Forster. Subsequent

biographies are by William Black (1878), and Austin Dobson (1888,

American ed. 1899). The above article by Lord Macaulay has been

slightly revised for this edition by Mr Austin Dobson, as regards

questions of fact for which there has been new evidence.

GOLDSTUCKER, THEODOR (1821-1872), German Sanskrit scholar, was born of

Jewish parents at Konigsberg on the 18th of January 1821, and, after

attending the gymnasium of that town, entered the university in 1836 as

a student of Sanskrit. In 1838 he removed to Bonn, and, after graduating

at Konigsberg in 1840, proceeded to Paris; in 1842 he edited a German

translation of the _Prabodha Chandrodaya_. From 1847 to 1850 he resided

at Berlin, where his talents and scholarship were recognized by

Alexander von Humboldt, but where his advanced political views caused

the authorities to regard him with suspicion. In the latter year he

removed to London, where in 1852 he was appointed professor of Sanskrit

in University College. He now worked on a new Sanskrit dictionary, of

which the first instalment appeared in 1856. In 1861 he published his

chief work: _Panini: his place in Sanskrit Literature_; and he was one

of the founders and chief promoters of the Sanskrit Text Society; he was

also an active member of the Philological Society, and of other learned

bodies. He died in London on the 6th of March 1872.

As _Literary Remains_ some of his writings were published in two

volumes (London, 1879), but his papers were left to the India Office

with the request that they were not to be published until 1920.

GOLDWELL, THOMAS (d. 1585), English ecclesiastic, began his career as

vicar of Cheriton in 1531, after graduating M.A. at All Souls College,

Oxford. He became chaplain to Cardinal Pole and lived with him at Rome,

was attainted in 1539, but returned to England on Mary's accession, and

in 1555 became bishop of St Asaph, a diocese which he did much to win

back to the old faith. On the death of Mary, Goldwell escaped from

England and in 1561 became superior of the Theatines at Naples. He was

the only English bishop at the council of Trent, and in 1562 was again

attainted. In the following year he was appointed vicar-general to Carlo

Borromeo, archbishop of Milan. He died in Rome in 1585, the last of the

English bishops who had refused to accept the Reformation.

GOLDZIHER, IGNAZ (1850- ), Jewish Hungarian orientalist, was born in

Stuhlweissenburg on the 22nd of June 1850. He was educated at the

universities of Budapest, Berlin, Leipzig and Leiden, and became privat

docent at Budapest in 1872. In the next year, under the auspices of the

Hungarian government, he began a journey through Syria, Palestine and

Egypt, and took the opportunity of attending lectures of Mahommedan

sheiks in the mosque of el-Azhar in Cairo. He was the first Jewish

scholar to become professor in the Budapest University (1894), and

represented the Hungarian government and the Academy of Sciences at

numerous international congresses. He received the large gold medal at

the Stockholm Oriental Congress in 1889. He became a member of several

Hungarian and other learned societies, was appointed secretary of the

Jewish community in Budapest. He was made Litt. D. of Cambridge (1904)

and LL.D. of Aberdeen (1906). His eminence in the sphere of scholarship

is due primarily to his careful investigation of pre-Mahommedan and

Mahommedan law, tradition, religion and poetry, in connexion with which

he published a large number of treatises, review articles and essays

contributed to the collections of the Hungarian Academy.

Among his chief works are: _Beitrage zur Literaturgeschichte der

Schi'a_ (1874); _Beitrage zur Geschichte der Sprachgelehrsamkeit bei

den Arabern_ (Vienna, 1871-1873); _Der Mythos bei den Hebraern und

seine geschichtliche Entwickelung_ (Leipzig, 1876; Eng. trans., R.

Martineau, London, 1877); _Muhammedanische Studien_ (Halle, 1889-1890,

2 vols.); _Abhandlungen zur arabischen Philologie_ (Leiden, 1896-1899,

2 vols.); _Buch v. Wesen d. Seele_ (ed. 1907).

GOLETTA [LA GOULETTE], a town on the Gulf of Tunis in 36 deg. 50' N. 10

deg. 19' E., a little south of the ruins of Carthage, and on the north

side of the ship canal which traverses the shallow Lake of Tunis and

leads to the city of that name. Built on the narrow strip of sand which

separates the lake from the gulf, Goletta is defended by a fort and

battery. The town contains a summer palace of the bey, the old seraglio,

arsenal and customhouse, and many villas, gardens and pleasure resorts,

Goletta being a favourite place for sea-bathing. A short canal, from

which the name of the town is derived (Arab. _Halk-el-Wad_, "throat of

the canal"), 40 ft. broad and 8-1/2 ft. deep, divides the town and

affords communication between the ship canal and a dock or basin, 1082

ft. long and 541 ft. broad. An electric tramway which runs along the

north bank of the ship canal connects Goletta with the city of Tunis

(q.v.). Pop. (1907) about 5000, mostly Jews and Italian fishermen.

Beyond Cape Carthage, 5 m. N. of Goletta, is La Marsa, a summer resort

overlooking the sea. The bey has a palace here, and the French

resident-general, the British consul, other officials, and many

Tunisians have country-houses, surrounded by groves of olive trees.

Before the opening of the ship canal in 1893 Goletta, as the port of

Tunis, was a place of considerable importance. The basin at the Goletta

end of the canal now serves as a subsidiary harbour to that of Tunis.

The most stirring events in the history of the town are connected with

the Turkish conquest of the Barbary states. Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa

having made himself master of Tunis and its port, Goletta was attacked

in 1535 by the emperor Charles V., who seized the pirate's fleet, which

was sheltered in the small canal, his arsenal, and 300 brass cannon. The

Turks regained possession in 1574. (See TUNISIA: _History_.)

GOLF (in its older forms GOFF, GOUFF or GOWFF, the last of which gives

the genuine old pronunciation), a game which probably derives its name

from the Ger. _kolbe_, a club--in Dutch, _kolf_--which last is nearly in

sound identical and might suggest a Dutch origin,[1] which many pictures

and other witnesses further support.

_History._--One of the most ancient and most interesting of the pictures

in which the game is portrayed is the tailpiece to an illuminated _Book

of Hours_ made at Bruges at the beginning of the 16th century. The

original is in the British Museum. The players, three in number, have

but one club apiece. The heads of the clubs are steel or steel covered.

They play with a ball each. That which gives this picture a peculiar

interest over the many pictures of Dutch schools that portray the game

in progress is that most of them show it on the ice, the putting being

at a stake. In this _Book of Hours_ they are putting at a hole in the

turf, as in our modern golf. It is scarcely to be doubted that the game

is of Dutch origin, and that it has been in favour since very early

days. Further than that our knowledge does not go. The early Dutchmen

played golf, they painted golf, but they did not write it.

It is uncertain at what date golf was introduced into Scotland, but in

1457 the popularity of the game had already become so great as seriously

to interfere with the more important pursuit of archery. In March of

that year the Scottish parliament "decreted and ordained that

_wapinshawingis_ be halden be the lordis and baronis spirituale and

temporale, four times in the zeir; and that the fute-ball and _golf be

utterly cryit down, and nocht usit_; and that the bowe-merkis be maid at

ilk paroche kirk a pair of buttis, and _schuttin be usit ilk Sunday_."

Fourteen years afterwards, in May 1471, it was judged necessary to pass

another act "anent wapenshawings," and in 1491 a final and evidently

angry fulmination was issued on the general subject, with pains and

penalties annexed. It runs thus--"Futeball and Golfe forbidden. Item, it

is statut and ordainit that in na place of the realme there be usit

fute-ball, _golfe, or uther sik unprofitabill sportis_," &c. This, be it

noted, is an edict of James IV.; and it is not a little curious

presently to find the monarch himself setting an ill example to his

commons, by practice of this "unprofitabill sport," as is shown by

various entries in the accounts of the lord high treasurer of Scotland

(1503-1506).

About a century later, the game again appears on the surface of history,

and it is quite as popular as before. In the year 1592 the town council

of Edinburgh "ordanis proclamation to be made threw this burgh, that na

inhabitants of the samyn be seen at ony pastymes within or without the

toun, upoun the Sabboth day, sic as golfe, &c."[2] The following year

the edict was re-announced, but with the modification that the

prohibition was "in tyme of sermons."

Golf has from old times been known in Scotland as "The _Royal and

Ancient_ Game of Goff." Though no doubt Scottish monarchs handled the

club before him, James IV. is the first who figures formally in the

golfing record. James V. was also very partial to the game distinctively

known as "royal"; and there is some scrap of evidence to show that his

daughter, the unhappy Mary Stuart, was a golfer. It was alleged by her

enemies that, as showing her shameless indifference to the fate of her

husband, a very few days after his murder, she "was seen playing _golf_

and pallmall in the fields beside Seton."[3] That her son, James VI.

(afterwards James I. of England), was a golfer, tradition confidently

asserts, though the evidence which connects him with the personal

practice of the game is slight. Of the interest he took in it we have

evidence in his act--already alluded to--"anent _golfe ballis_,"

prohibiting their importation, except under certain restrictions.

Charles I. (as his brother Prince Henry had been[4]) was devotedly

attached to the game. Whilst engaged in it on the links of Leith, in

1642, the news reached him of the Irish rebellion of that year. He had

not the equanimity to finish his match, but returned precipitately and

in much agitation to Holyrood.[5] Afterwards, while prisoner to the

Scots army at Newcastle, he found his favourite diversion in "the royal

game." "The King was nowhere treated with more honour than at Newcastle,

as he himself confessed, both he and his train having liberty to go

abroad and play at goff in the Shield Field, without the walls."[6] Of

his son, Charles II., as a golfer, nothing whatever is ascertained, but

James II. was a known devotee.[7] After the Restoration, James, then

duke of York, was sent to Edinburgh in 1681/2 as commissioner of the

king to parliament, and an historical monument of his prowess as a

golfer remains there to this day in the "Golfer's Land," as it is still

called, 77 Canongate. The duke having been challenged by two English

noblemen of his suite, to play a match against them, for a very large

stake, along with any Scotch ally he might select, chose as his partner

one "Johne Patersone," a shoemaker. The duke and the said Johne won

easily, and half of the large stake the duke made over to his humble

coadjutor, who therewith built himself the house mentioned above. In

1834 William IV. became patron of the St Andrews Golf Club (St Andrews

being then, as now, the most famous seat of the game), and approved of

its being styled "The _Royal and Ancient_ Golf Club of St Andrews." In

1837, as further proof of royal favour, he presented to it a magnificent

gold medal, which "should be challenged and played for annually"; and in

1838 the queen dowager, duchess of St Andrews, became patroness of the

club, and presented to it a handsome gold medal--"The Royal

Adelaide"--with a request that it should be worn by the captain, as

president, on all public occasions. In June 1863 the prince of Wales

(afterwards Edward VII.) signified his desire to become patron of the

club, and in the following September was elected captain by acclamation.

His engagements did not admit of his coming in person to undertake the

duties of the office, but his brother Prince Leopold (the duke of

Albany), having in 1876 done the club the honour to become its captain,

twice visited the ancient city in that capacity.

In more recent days, golf has become increasingly popular in a much

wider degree. In 1880 the man who travelled about England with a set of

golf clubs was an object of some astonishment, almost of alarm, to his

fellow-travellers. In those days the commonest of questions in regard to

the game was, "You have to be a fine rider, do you not, to play golf?"

so confounded was it in the popular mind with the game of polo. At

Blackheath a few Scotsmen resident in London had long played golf. In

1864 the Royal North Devon Club was formed at Westward Ho, and this was

the first of the seaside links discovered and laid out for golf in

England. In 1869 the Royal Liverpool Club established itself in

possession of the second English course of this quality at Hoylake, in

Cheshire. A golf club was formed in connexion with the London Scottish

Volunteers corps, which had its house on the Putney end of Wimbledon

Common on Putney Heath; and, after making so much of a start, the

progress of the game was slow, though steady, for many years. A few more

clubs were formed; the numbers of golfers grew; but it could not be said

that the game was yet in any sense popular in England. All at once, for

no very obvious reason, the qualities of the ancient Scottish game

seemed to strike home, and from that moment its popularity has been

wonderfully and increasingly great. The English links that rose into

most immediate favour was the fine course of the St George's Golf Club,

near Sandwich, on the coast of Kent. To the London golfer it was the

first course of the first class that was reasonably accessible, and the

fact made something like an epoch in English golf. A very considerable

increase, it is true, in the number of English golfers and English golf

clubs had taken place before the discovery for golfing purposes of the

links at Sandwich. Already there was a chain of links all round the

coast, besides numerous inland courses; but since 1890 their increase

has been extraordinary, and the number which has been formed in the

colonies and abroad is very large also, so that in the _Golfer's Year

Book_ for 1906 a space of over 300 pages was allotted to the Club

Directory alone, each page containing, on a rough average, six clubs. To

compute the average membership of these clubs is very difficult. There

is not a little overlapping, in the sense that a member of one club will

often be a member of several others; but probably the average may be

placed at something like 200 members for each club.

The immense amount of golf-playing that this denotes, the large industry

in the making of clubs and balls, in the upkeep of links, in the actual

work of club-carrying by the caddies, and in the instruction given by

the professional class, is obvious. Golf has taken a strong hold on the

affections of the people in many parts of Ireland, and the fashion for

golf in England has reacted strongly on Scotland itself, the ancient

home of the game, where since 1880 golfers have probably increased in

the ratio of forty to one. Besides the industry that such a growth of

the game denotes in the branches immediately connected with it, as

mentioned above, there is to be taken into further account the visiting

population that it brings to all lodging-houses and hotels within reach

of a tolerable golf links, so that many a fishing village has risen into

a moderate watering-place by virtue of no other attractions than those

which are offered by its golf course. Therefore to the Briton, golf has

developed from something of which he had a vague idea--as of

"curling"--to something in the nature of an important business, a

business that can make towns and has a considerable effect on the

receipts of railway companies.

Moreover, ladies have learned to play golf. Although this is a crude and

brief sentence, it does not state the fact too widely nor too forcibly,

for though it is true that before 1885 many played on the short links of

St Andrews, North Berwick, Westward Ho and elsewhere, still it was

virtually unknown that they should play on the longer courses, which

till then had been in the undisputed possession of the men. At many

places women now have their separate links, at others they play on the

same course as the men. But even where links are set apart for women,

they are far different from the little courses that used to be assigned

to them. They are links only a little less formidable in their bunkers,

a little less varied in their features than those of men. The ladies

have their annual championship, which they play on the long links of the

men, sometimes on one, sometimes on another, but always on courses of

the first quality, demanding the finest display of golfing skill.

The claim that England made to a golfing fellowship with Scotland was

conceded very strikingly by the admission of three English greens, first

those of Hoylake and of Sandwich, and in 1909 Deal, into the exclusive

list of the links on which the open championship of the game is decided.

Before England had so fully assimilated Scotland's game this great

annual contest was waged at St Andrews, Musselburgh and Prestwick in

successive years. Now the ancient green of Musselburgh, somewhat worn

out with length of hard and gallant service, and moreover, as a

nine-holes course inadequately accommodating the numbers who compete in

the championships to-day, has been superseded by the course at Muirfield

as a championship arena.

While golf had been making itself a force in the southern kingdom, the

professional element--men who had learned the game from childhood, had

become past-masters, were capable of giving instruction, and also of

making clubs and balls and looking after the greens on which golf was

played--had at first been taken from the northern side of the Border.

But when golf had been started long enough in England for the little

boys who were at first employed as "caddies"--in carrying the players'

clubs--to grow to sufficient strength to drive the ball as far as their

masters, it was inevitable that out of the number who thus began to play

in their boyhood some few should develop an exceptional talent for the

game. This, in fact, actually happened, and English golfers, both of the

amateur and the professional classes, have proved themselves so adept

at Scotland's game, that the championships in either the Open or the

Amateur competitions have been won more often by English than by

Scottish players of late years. Probably in the United Kingdom to-day

there are as many English as Scottish professional golf players, and

their relative number is increasing.

Golf also "caught on," to use the American expression, in the United

States. To the American of 1890 golf was largely an unknown thing. Since

then, however, golf has become perhaps a greater factor in the life of

the upper and upper-middle classes in the United States than it ever has

been in England or Scotland. Golf to the English and the Scots meant

only one among several of the sports and pastimes that take the man and

the woman of the upper and upper-middle classes into the country and the

fresh air. To the American of like status golf came as the one thing to

take him out of his towns and give him a reason for exercise in the

country. To-day golf has become an interest all over North America, but

it is in the Eastern States that it has made most difference in the life

of the classes with whom it has become fashionable. Westerners and

Southerners found more excuses before the coming of golf for being in

the open country air. It is in the Eastern States more especially that

it has had so much influence in making the people live and take exercise

out of doors. In a truly democratic spirit the American woman golfer

plays on a perfect equality with the American man. She does not compete

in the men's championships; she has championships of her own; but she

plays, without question, on the same links. There is no suggestion of

relegating her, as a certain cynical writer in the Badminton volume on

golf described it, to a waste corner, a kind of "Jews' Quarter," of the

links. And the Americans have taken up golf in the spirit of a sumptuous

and opulent people, spending money on magnificent clubhouses beyond the

finest dreams of the Englishman or the Scot. The greatest success

achieved by any American golfer fell to the lot of Mr Walter Travis of

the Garden City club, who in 1904 won the British amateur championship.

So much enthusiasm and so much golf in America have not failed to make

their influence felt in the United Kingdom. Naturally and inevitably

they have created a strong demand for professional instruction, both by

example and by precept, and for professional advice and assistance in

the laying-out and upkeep of the many new links that have been created

in all parts of the States, sometimes out of the least promising

material. By the offer of great prizes for exhibition matches, and of

wages that are to the British rate on the scale of the dollar to the

shilling, they have attracted many of the best Scottish and English

professionals to pay them longer or shorter visits as the case may be,

and thus a new opening has been created for the energies of the

professional golfing class.

_The Game._--The game of golf may be briefly defined as consisting in

hitting the ball over a great extent of country, preferably of that

sand-hill nature which is found by the seaside, and finally hitting or

"putting" it into a little hole of some 4 in. diameter cut in the turf.

The place of the hole is commonly marked by a flag. Eighteen is the

recognized number of these holes on a full course, and they are at

varying distances apart, from 100 yds. up to anything between a 1/4 and

1/2 m. For the various strokes required to achieve the hitting of the

ball over the great hills, and finally putting it into the small hole, a

number of different "clubs" has been devised to suit the different

positions in which the ball may be found and the different directions in

which it is wished to propel it. At the start for each hole the ball may

be placed on a favourable position (e.g. "tee'd" on a small mound of

sand) for striking it, but after that it may not be touched, except with

the club, until it is hit into the next hole. A "full drive," as the

farthest distance that the ball can be hit is called, is about 200 yds.

in length, of which some three-fourths will be traversed in the air, and

the rest by bounding or running over the ground. It is easily to be

understood that when the ball is lying on the turf behind a tall

sand-hill, or in a bunker, a differently-shaped club is required for

raising it over such an obstacle from that which is needed when it is

placed on the tee to start with; and again, that another club is needed

to strike the ball out of a cup or out of heavy grass. It is this

variety that gives the game its charm. Each player plays with his own

ball, with no interference from his opponent, and the object of each is

to hit the ball from the starting-point into each successive hole in the

fewest strokes. The player who at the end of the round (i.e. of the

course of eighteen holes) has won the majority of the holes is the

winner of the round; or the decision may be reached before the end of

the round by one side gaining more holes than there remain to play. For

instance, if one player be four holes to the good, and only three holes

remain to be played, it is evident that the former must be the winner,

for even if the latter win every remaining hole, he still must be one to

the bad at the finish.

The British Amateur Championship is decided by a tournament in matches

thus played, each defeated player retiring, and his opponent passing on

into the next round. In the case of the Open Championship, and in most

medal competitions, the scores are differently reckoned--each man's

total score (irrespective of his relative merit at each hole) being

reckoned at the finish against the total score of the other players in

the competition. There is also a species of competition called "bogey"

play, in which each man plays against a "bogey" score--a score fixed for

each hole in the round before starting--and his position in the

competition relatively to the other players is determined by the number

of holes that he is to the good or to the bad of the "bogey" score at

the end of the round. The player who is most holes to the good, or

fewest holes to the bad, wins the competition. It may be mentioned

incidentally that golf occupies the almost unique position of being the

only sport in which even a single player can enjoy his game, his

opponent in this event being "Colonel Bogey"--more often than not a

redoubtable adversary.

The links which have been thought worthy, by reason of their

geographical positions and their merits, of being the scenes on which

the golf championships are fought out, are, as we have already said,

three in Scotland--St Andrews, Prestwick and Muirfield--and three in

England--Hoylake, Sandwich and Deal. This brief list is very far from

being complete as regards links of first-class quality in Great

Britain. Besides those named, there are in Scotland--Carnoustie, North

Berwick, Cruden Bay, Nairn, Aberdeen, Dornoch, Troon, Machrihanish,

South Uist, Islay, Gullane, Luffness and many more. In England there

are--Westward Ho, Bembridge, Littlestone, Great Yarmouth, Brancaster,

Seaton Carew, Formby, Lytham, Harlech, Burnham, among the seaside

ones; while of the inland, some of them of very fine quality, we

cannot even attempt a selection, so large is their number and so

variously estimated their comparative merits. Ireland has Portrush,

Newcastle, Portsalon, Dollymount and many more of the first class; and

there are excellent courses in the Isle of Man. In America many fine

courses have been constructed. There is not a British colony of any

standing that is without its golf course--Australia, India, South

Africa, all have their golf championships, which are keenly contested.

Canada has had courses at Quebec and Montreal for many years, and the

Calcutta Golf Club, curiously enough, is the oldest established (next

to the Blackheath Club), the next oldest being the club at Pau in the

Basses-Pyrenees.

The Open Championship of golf was started in 1860 by the Prestwick

Club giving a belt to be played for annually under the condition that

it should become the property of any who could win it thrice in

succession. The following is the list of the champions:--

1860. W. Park, Musselburgh 174--at Prestwick.

1861. Tom Morris, sen., Prestwick 163--at Prestwick.

1862. Tom Morris, sen., Prestwick 163--at Prestwick.

1863. W. Park, Musselburgh 168--at Prestwick.

1864. Tom Morris, sen., Prestwick 160--at Prestwick.

1865. A. Strath, St Andrews 162--at Prestwick.

1866. W. Park, Musselburgh 169--at Prestwick.

1867. Tom Morris, sen., St Andrews 170--at Prestwick.

1868. Tom Morris, jun., St Andrews 154--at Prestwick.

1869. Tom Morris, jun., St Andrews 157--at Prestwick.

1870. Tom Morris, jun., St Andrews 149--at Prestwick.

Tom Morris, junior, thus won the belt finally, according to the

conditions. In 1871 there was no competition; but by 1872 the three

clubs of St Andrews, Prestwick and Musselburgh had subscribed for a

cup which should be played for over the course of each subscribing

club successively, but should never become the property of the winner.

In later years the course at Muirfield was substituted for that at

Musselburgh, and Hoylake and Sandwich were admitted into the list of

championship courses. Up to 1891, inclusive, the play of two rounds,

or thirty-six holes, determined the championship, but from 1892 the

result has been determined by the play of 72 holes.