A Keen Hand, H.B. Farnie 1857

[southplains]

Has anyone read this first-ever golf instruction book?

 

The golfer's manual, being an historical and

descriptive account of the national game of Scotland,

by H B Farnie. 1857. reprinted 1947 and 1965.

Apparently, Farnie was also known as "A Keen Hand", so that sometimes

appears as the title.

Amazon shows one copy available for $325, out of only 750 originally published.

 

Various accounts of it only say it discusses the controversy, in those days,

about using an open or closed stance. The only copies I am seeing on the 'net

are expensive auctions or distant libraries. If anyone has encountered the

book, please illuminate us as to its contents. Thanks.

 

update: I just figured out how to request the 1947 edition via Interlibrary Loan through my local

public library. If it comes through, I will write up a synopsis out here.

[southplains]

While I await the rare copy of the book via InterLibraryLoan, I discovered

a sixty-odd page excerpt buried in the text of this digitized 1887 book in the Internet Archive at:

 

https://archive.org/...scell00unkngoog

 

titled: Golfiana miscellanea; being a collection of interesting monographs on the royal and ancient game of golf

by: Stewart, James Lyndsay

 

The excerpt is titled "The Game and How to Play It"

Here is a short passage to illustrate the prose. Farnie a real flair for writing!

"Allan" probably refers to Allan Robertson, considered one of the best players of those days.

 

"In the practice of Golf as in Billiards, a good style or

mode of playing is almost everything. How often do we

see the beginner blundering away by himself at both these

amusements without chart or compass -- day after day re-

peating and confirming his errors, so as almost certainly

to preclude the possibility for the future of his ever be-

coming a player. Again (but how seldom this !), we see a

muff getting his first lessons from an M.A. of the sport,

handling his club with the aplomb of the redoubtable

"Allan" himself —- and in a few weeks completely dis-

tancing a beginner of our other sort of two or three years

standing. Most earnestly do we desire, in this preamble

to our dissertation on style, to impress the fact on the un-

initiated reader, that mere animal strength never yet made

a Golfer ; that knack, as science is cantly phrased, and not

force alone sends the reeling ball on its lengthening flight

— extricates it from the tufted grass or thickest whin —

and directs its devious but unerring course over the

undulating putting green to the goal ; and that the weakest

arm, nerved with a knowledge of the art, is more than a

match for thews and sinews, however stalwart, minus the

first principles of the gentle craft."

[southplains]

If anybody cares, I finally received the book. It is copy#569 of 750 reprints

published in 1947. You can bet I will be handling it with kid gloves while

I study it. Hope to be working on my "St. Andrews swing" on the range.

Maybe I can scan into a pdf file since I haven't found it online anywhere.

[southplains]

Scanning is difficult because the book spine is too stiff to lay flat on the scanner.

These images are too large for easy reading because I am unable to shrink them

into this post. Working on it.

Figured out the scanner software to make a pdf file. Began with Table of Contents attachment.

 

A few notes on first reading.

Putting - face-on stance. wrist stroke. right arm controls. left arm guides.

Swing - arms swing the club. body supports that swing.

Frowns on divot-taking except when "jerking" from a bad lie.

Golfers classified as "agile" and "non-agile".

[Ironmaster Oddities]

beautiful prose. Have fun reading it. probably some nuggets of genius tucked away in there, as well.

 

enjoy,

Uncle bob

[southplains]

Here is a pdf attachment with Bernard Darwin's Foreword and Farnie's Preface.

I hope to have the entire book scanned or phone-pic'd in a week or so.

[Zachilroy]

I really enjoyed reading the forward and would be thrilled to experience the rest of what this book has to offer if you're able to put together a full pdf of it. Thanks for preserving it.

[southplains]

I really enjoyed reading the forward and would be thrilled to experience the rest of what this book has to offer if you're able to put together a full pdf of it. Thanks for preserving it.

 

Thank you for your interest and response. I have cleared the decks, closeted the clubs, closed the other books

I'm studying and am now ready to focus on doing the scanning. I want to concentrate on what Farnie has to say

and how it relates to the thousands of golf instruction texts that followed it and still proliferate today. Those texts

only skim the surface of golf instruction, but they reflect many of the fundamental truths in the fascinating game that we all love so much.

 

I will attach each chapter as I scan it, then edit everything into a single document.

[southplains]

Now we get to the meat of the book - "On Style of Play" and "Points of The Game"

[southplains]

Now to the end - "Match Playing" and "Conclusion". Finally "Glossary", "Appendix", etc.

Then back to the title, etc front matter, where I should have begun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[southplains]

I located my 2016 pdf scans of Farley's book (rare 1947 reprint) and am uploading them for anyone interested.

enjoy, southplains

 

FrontMatter_001.pdf foreword_001.pdf tableofcontents_001.pdf Chapter1_001.pdf Chapter1_002.pdf Chapter2_001.pdf Chapter3_002.pdf Chapter4_001.pdf Chapter5_001.pdf Chapter6_001.pdf Chapter7_001.pdf Chapter8_001.pdf Chapter9_001.pdf Glossary_Appendix_001.pdf