302 MEMORIALS OF EllINBURGH.
now stimulated to its defence as i national amusement peculiar to Scotland, from his
earnest desire to win the popular favour, in which he was no way more likely to succeed than
by flattering their prejudices on any question of nationality, and becoming their champion
in it0 defence. The antiquity of the Scottish game is proved by a statute, passed in the
reign of James II., 1457, forbidding the practice of both ‘( fute-ball and. golfe,” under
the penalty of the Baron’s unlaw, and enacting the use of the Bow in its sted.
The evidence on the English side not being so readily forthcoming, the Englishmen
offered to rest the legitimacy of their national pretensions on the result of a match
to be played by them against his Royal Highness and any Scotsman he chose to select.
‘She Duke immediately accepted the challenge, and, after careful inquiry, selected as
his partner John Paterson, a poor shoemaker of the Canongate, whose ancestors had
been celebrated for centuries as proficients in the game, and who then enjoyed the
honour of being considered the best golfer of his day. The match was played by the
Duke and his partner against their English challengers on the Links of Leith.; heavy
stakes were risked by the Duke and his noble opponents on the results; and after a
hard-fought field, the royal champion of Scotland and his humble squire carried the. day
triumphantly. The poor shoemaker was rewarded with a large share of the stakes
forfeited by the challenger, and with this he built the substantial tenement which
still records his name, and commemorates his victory Over the impugners of the national
sports.
A large and handsome tablet on the front of the mansion bears the Paterson Armsthree
pelicans feeding their young, with three mullets on a chief; and surmounted by a
knight’s helmet, and a defaced crest, said to be a hand grasping a golfer’s club. Over
the ground floor, a plain slab is inscribed with the following epigram, from the pen of
the celebrated Dr Pitcairn, commemorative of the heroic deeds of the. builder, and the
national claims which he successfully asserted :-
Cum victor ludo, Scotis qui proprius, esset,
Ter tres victores pcat redemitos avos,
Pateraonus, humo tunc educehat in altum
Hano, que victores tot tulet una, domum.
!Che letters of this elegant distich were formerly gilded so as to attract the. notice of
the passer, but this has entirely disappeared, and the inscription no longer challenges
the attention of any but the curious antiquary. Underneath is placed the philanthropic
declaration I HATE NO PERSON, which might be supposed the very natural aentiment of one
who had achieved such unexpected honour and reward. It proves, however, to be merely
the transposition of the letters of his own name into an anagram, according to the quaint
fashion of the age. The ancient tenement appears in the accompanying engraving, and
the inscriptions upon it leave no reasonable doubt of the traditional fame of the Canongate
Golfer. We are sorry in any degree to disturb a tradition backed by such incontrovertible
evidence ; but it appears probable, from the evidence of the title-deeds, that the Golfer’s
Land was lost, instead of won, by the gaming propensities of its owner. It was acquired
in 1609 by Nicol Paterson, maltman in Leith, from whom it passed in 1632 to his son,
John Paterson, and Apes Lyel, his spouse. He - died in 1663, as appears by the epitaph
