Missaal - 1504

An engraving from a missal of 1504, showing peasants engaged at 'chole', 'choulla' or 'crosse'. In the original coloured miniature the heads of the clubs are painted of a steely blue. It has been remarked that the game, as presented, is a kind of hockey rather than colf. It must be noted, however, that the artist may have introduced the iron-headed clubs of one game into the other. The confused descriptions given by a learned but muddle-headed writer in the old 'Mercure de France' show that he got all the possible games mixed in his mind. The oldest mentions of 'chole' and 'choulla' seem usually to have been made because a quarrel arose at the game, and one player hit another over the sconce with his iron-headed club. There is nothing to show, as far as I am aware, that these early Flemish colfers putted at holes. They do not so now, but play to a given mark, a stone, a church gate, a pot-house door.

The missal from which we borrow our engraving is in the possession of Sir T.D. Gibson Carmichael, at Castle Craig. Lady Carmichael has kindly copied the miniature. (1893)

Herkomst: The Badminton Library: Golf (1893).