News: Late Spring 2024: Golf in Perth and Perthshire, by Peter Baxter (1899), with commentary by David Hamilton

Dear Clients and Friends,

We are pleased to announce our publication of the 1899 golf classic by Peter Baxter, Golf in Perth and Perthshire, reset in type together with fulsome introductory commentary by renowned Scottish golf historian, our friend David Hamilton.

One of Mr. Baxter’s several talents included skilled craftsmanship as a ‘compositor’, that is a typesetter and printer, and the unique layout of his 1899 volume is as pleasant to behold as the text itself.

Our publishing effort is coincident with the 200th anniversary of the founding in 1824 of The Royal Perth Golfing Society, the first golfing organization to receive the title ‘Royal’, which King William IV awarded in 1833, and whose dedicated chapter in Golf in Perth and Perthshire is a delight.

The Royal Perth Golfing Society is also one of the twenty five oldest golfing organizations in the world, and there is evidence of golf first having been played in Perth in the late 16th century along the banks of the River Tay (where downstream, nearer the North Sea, parish records note golf play at Carnoustie early in the 16th century). At its founding in 1824 Sir David Moncrieffe was named the first captain, a position he had held prior at the Society of St Andrews Golfers, founded in 1754, which in 1834 became The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the second such ‘Royal’ recipient.

Here are excerpts from this important entry in the library of golf, including the first paragraphs of David Hamilton’s excellent Introduction, which gives comprehensive context and description not only to the book but also to Peter Baxter himself. Golf in Perth and Perthshire also includes several entries from the well-known local poet of the time, Neil Fergusson Blair, as well as narratives about other golfing organizations which shared access to the playing grounds of South Inch and North Inch aside the River Tay (with ‘inch’ in Scots Gaelic meaning ‘field’). Additional informative material on related golfing matters is evident as the breadth of the volume’s ’Contents’, shown below, makes clear.