PBA Galleries

xii, 224, [4] index pp. 4 Copper-engraved plates including frontispiece and a plan of St. Andrews. (8vo) original plum cloth, paper spine label. A New Edition, Revised and Improved by the Author.

The rare and unlisted edition issued between the second and the third, not listed in D&J, D&M, nor Murdoch. Donovan & Jerris describe some unique qualities of the third edition, published in 1838, which contains a reference to the decline in the number of golf ball makers active in St. Andrews from twelve to six. In the chapter devoted to the "Company of Golfers," this edition states that "ten or twelve" ball makers are active. The chapter on golf remains, like the other editions, a rich source of information on the history of golf at St. Andrews, and provides a description of the manufacture of the feathery golf ball, the production of which is described as "unhealthy," and while at one time they applied the instrument that stuffed the feathers into the ball with their breast, now they apply it with their shoulder. See D&J G38710. Provenance: From the collection of Theodore Prussing LeVino.