[Skene, Sir John, editor] - Golfing interest
The Lawes and Actes of Parliament...
£378
Auction: 05 February 2025 from 10:00 GMT
Description
Maid be King James the First, and his Successours Kinges of Scotland… Edinburgh: Robert Waldegrave, 1597. Folio, lacks engraved additional title, folding genealogical table, f.46 (from the first section), ff.160 (from the second section), and around 41 final pages, ff.9 and 10 in part 2 misbound but present, with 14 manuscript leaves written in an early Scottish secretarial hand, a signature seeming to read “A. Skene” to f.109 of the Roll of the Names (possibly Alexander Skene, a younger son of John Skene); [bound with] The Lawes and Acts of Parliament… since his Majesties XV. Parliament…1597. Edinburgh: Evan Tyler, 1647; contemporary calf with remnants of clasps, some browning and spotting, covers rubbed and binding a little loose
Footnote
This work is notable for the appearance in print for only the second time of laws regarding golf. item 65, In the reign of King James the Second, XIIII Parliament vi of March, 1457, “Item, It is Decreeted & ordained . . . that the Fute-ball and Golfe be utterly cryed downe, and not to be used”.
Additional acts prohibiting football and golf were introduced during the reign of King James IV in 1491: item 32 in the Third Parliament xviii of Maij 1491: “Item, It is statute and ordained that in na place of the Realme there be used fute-ball, golfe, or uther sik unfrofitable sportes, for the common gud of the Realme & defense thereof."