Gentry Links: The Great Men of The Golfers

Chapter Summaries

PROLOGUE: THE GOLFERS: ABOUT THE PAINTING AND THE ARTIST

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The construction of The Golfers forms a rich tapestry with many fascinating and informative themes captured by metaphors. These visual metaphors suggest an association with some other broader theme or idea. To identify these metaphors, and why and how the artist, Charles Lees, constructed his painting, we have to understand the man himself, and delve into what may have been in his mind.

Lees’ principal metaphor is of a royal, and very ancient, sport. He illustrates this metaphor in several ways. His use of metaphors unlocks a range of other stories that provide his painting with considerable depth.

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CHAPTER 1: CHAMPION GOLFERS

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The Golfers celebrates the game of golf, through the Gold Medal winners in the three principal golfing regions: St Andrews, East Lothian and Perth. But the artist did not give his selected champions prominence. The Golfers is, therefore, about far more than identifying and celebrating these champion golfers.

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CHAPTER 2: DELECTUS PERSONAE: THE ‘GREAT MAN’ THEORY

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Charles Lees’ late addition of selected gentlemen supports the concept that he was applying Thomas Carlyle’s ‘Great Man’ theory. The lives of the gentlemen in this chapter cover a wide range of great men, from military heroes to descendants from the royal blood.

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CHAPTER 3: ‘GREAT WOMEN’? (IMPORTANT HUSBANDS)

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Women in Victorian society in 1847, many of whom were very wealthy, were subservient to their husbands. In The Golfers only the gentlemen are identified by name, with no record of who the unidentified women might have been. They must have been included for a reason, and each of them would have had a tale to tell.

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CHAPTER 4: THE RED COATS: CAPTAINS OF THE ROYAL AND ANCIENT GOLF CLUB OF ST ANDREWS

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Charles Lees’ selection of the past captains of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews builds on his metaphor that this was a royal and ancient game.

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CHAPTER 5: EARLY GOLF: LINKED TO THE STUART ERA

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Charles Lees’ selection of a number of members of the nobility depicted as spectators in The Golfers creates a link in time with the nobles who accompanied King James VI of Scotland when he became King James I of England and Ireland. It is well established that they took their royal game with them from Scotland to London.

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CHAPTER 6: GENTRY ON THE LINKS: ST ANDREWS GOLFERS

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From about 1830 St Andrews had developed as a golfing centre, a modern resort with gentlemen’s houses built in the form of a new town, not far from the links. What constituted a ‘gentleman’ was broadening in the Victorian definition. Charles Lees captured this point in the evolution of golf, a game that was becoming available to a wider category of players but was still very restricted in Victorian society.

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CHAPTER 7: EAST LOTHIAN GOLFERS: ROYAL LINKS?

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The history of gentry on the links on both sides of the Firth of Forth goes back a very long time, but what is, perhaps, of more historical significance is the special relationship between St Andrews and North Berwick.

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CHAPTER 8: PERTH: THE STUARTS’ OTHER LINKS

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Although the Perth golfers are not actually participating in the match depicted in The Golfers, they may have been included for two reasons. First, amongst their number were the very wealthy, who would regularly travel down to St Andrews because that was where the big money bets were placed. Secondly, the gentlemen from Perth support the royal and ancient metaphor, by reason of the historic association of the Stuart kings with golf in Perth.

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CHAPTER 9: GREAT GOLFERS OR LOYAL SUPPORTERS?

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Charles Lees clearly focused on the gentry, as defined in Victorian times, in his construction of The Golfers. This was before the era of professional golf. Quite remarkably, Lees showed the greatest golfer in the country, Allan Robertson, in a unique status, holding clubs as a caddy. He also showed his great rival, Willie Dunn from East Lothian, but in a much more subservient position. Caddies were not, of course, gentlemen in the Victorian sense.

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CHAPTER 10: THE MATCH – AN ENIGMA: WHO IS PLAYING WHOM?

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The iconography used by Charles Lees supports the interpretation that this was a match between the golfers from St Andrews and the golfers from East Lothian, an ancient rivalry between the golfers of these historic links lands.

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CHAPTER 11: IN CONCLUSION: ONE PICTURE OR MANY?

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Charles Lees tells us many stories within his painting. The stories bring together the evolution of the game of golf in the context of the social history of Scotland. He provides a platform from which to understand images from a world that seems so very far away from the world that we currently inhabit. Above all, the artist demonstrates that the selected Scottish gentry were international in their outlook and reach.

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APPENDICES

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Understanding the social history of Scotland is key to appreciating the context of The Golfers: Scotland’s recovery from a state of near bankruptcy; the application of political patronage; the significance of appointments in India. Above all, there was one man, Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, whose importance cannot be understated. It might help the reader to understand a number of stories in this book if the Appendices are read first.