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. GOLF-AND STUART DONALDSON 199
in him, as Kinglake said of Keate, there was the pluck of
ten battalions. . •
Two other humorous pictures are in my mind, drawn
from the lovely Cromer links and connected with my dear
old friend Stuart Donaldson. It was on a fine still day
in August, rather a rare kind of day for that month, that
I was playing a round, and knew that at the same time
Donaldson was playing against Metealf, the much respected
Vicar of St. Pancras, and formerly of the Eton Mission
at Hackney Wick. Neither of these admirable men
would have protested if their golf had been described
then and always as extremely uncertain. Their handicaps
now would be about thirty. Standing on the shelftee,
then the eighth tee, I was enjoying the sunlight and
the very unusual quiet of the landscape, when suddenly
from the pen in the valley below a robust tenor voice
like a Tyrrhenian trumpet was heard proclaiming," Why,
Metcalf, you are the first man I have beaten for two and
a half years," The whole of Cromer and all the visitors
on the links were given the benefit of this information.
But the perfect tranquillity with which the somewhat
derogatory disclosure was received by Metealf was a lesson
to aU golfers ; though I will say very few men, golfers or
not, would have taken offence at anything Stuart Donaldson
said.
. Some years later I was walking over the links with
the present Bishop of Manchester, by the cliff edge, and
near Target Hill saw about twenty yards away a bulkily
built, grey-clad player bending over a golf ball, and while
grasping the club with the left hand, shaking his fist at
the i'ncrt sphere and apparently uttering what the Latin
poets would describe as " things fit to be uttered and
things not," especially the latter. After about a minute
be looked up, and " Donald's " beaming face met our gaze,
and in an instant, with all his habitual and delicious cordiality,
he hastened up the slope to greet us.. Of course
there was barely time to crack a joke, as other players were
coming along ; so Stuart hurried back to his ball, and the
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