We have lately come across a copy of the first book that was written on the subject of English billiards. It is entitled "White on the Game of Billiards," and was published in paper-covered boards at half-a-guinea in the year 1867 by W. Miller, Albemarle Street.
The author (Mr. E. White) was an amateur, and on the title-page the work, which runs to 212 octavo pages, is described as: "A Practical Treatise on the Game of Billiards, accurately exhibiting the Rules and Practice admitted by the first players of the present day, and illustrated with a numerous collection of cases explanatory of each of the different forms of the game, calculations for betting, tables of odds, etc., etc."
Although published 107 years ago, the book is in an excellent state of preservation, and most of the leaves are still uncut.
In his introduction the author says:—"It was at first the intention of the author to have formed a small compendium of brief and easy instructions, but considering that no work on the game of billiards had hitherto made its appearance in this country he soon conceived that by giving a little more amplitude to the composition he might render it of more general utility. Not having the advantage of written authorities to consult, the author has spared no pains in collecting the opinions and practice of the most celebrated players of the present day."
Who were these celebrated players of the time when Nelson and Napoleon were in their heydey? Even the worthy Carr, of Bath, of "twisting chalk" fame, must have been but a boy in 1807, for the year 1825 is the earliest date with which his name appears to be associated. And certain it is that Mr. White knew nothing about any of the refinements of side-stroke play, although he had discovered that to hit the ball below the centre had the effect of bringing it back at short range, towards the player, and that to hit it above the centre caused it to follow on. In the days of White the bed of the billiard table was of wood, the cushions were of stuffed cloth, the leather tip to the cue had only just been invented, and the mace was still employed. Chalk was, however, used, and this rather discounts the statement that appears in some modern works on billiards to the effect that Carr, of Bath, did not sell his "twisting chalk" by way of a swindle, but sold his secret and the chalk that became necessary to make the stroke and which had not previously been used. Mr. White says: "The point of the cue previously rubbed over with a little chalk, or made rough, to prevent it slipping," etc.
Dealing with the general principles of the game, our author, in lieu of compiling a glossary of billiard terms on his own account, gives a two-page glossary from a French book on billiards, with rather singular results, as many of the terms so given are merely the French equivalents for ordinary English words, such as to lose (perdre) a ball, the charge (frais) for the game, the giving of points (advantage), etc.
His general instructions, however, are quite practical, and it is also clear that he was a believer both in the theoretical and in the practical side of the game.
His descriptions of the division of the object ball and of the meanings of the terms "half-ball," "three-quarter ball," "quarter ball," etc., are, by a singular coincidence, those that have always been employed in The Billiard Monthly, and the same reasons are given for such employment as we have, ourselves, put forward, although we were not aware that such definitions had previously appeared in print. Thus we find the author stating that a full ball means the entire covering of one ball by another at the moment of contact, a half-ball the half covering, three-quarter ball, the three-quarter covering, the quarter-ball the quarter covering, and so on up to a seven-eighths ball on the one hand and a one-eighth ball on the other.
The cue contact points on the cue ball are given as four instead of nine in the present day, and are as follow: (1) The centre, (2) below the centre (3) above the centre and level with the table, (4) above the centre and oblique with regard to the level of the table. It will thus be seen clearly that a hundred years ago nothing whatever was known of the side stroke either by itself or in combination with top or screw. And yet one would have thought that the first poor player who handled a cue would have discovered side and at least some of its effects within the first five minutes.
The reference to a stroke in which the cue was held obliquely with regard to the level of the table is interesting alike with regard to its then use and also to a possibility that appears to have been overlooked. The cue was apparently raised a hundred years ago for the purpose of making one ball jump over another. In the present day, this effect is produced, and with much greater certainty, by cueing below the ball on the table level instead of down upon it with a harder stroke, and the raising of the cue is employed solely in connexion with masse, pique, and swerve shots.
Incidentally, it may be interesting here to note that before the present day masse stroke was discovered, and that term applied to it, the word masse was used in France as the equivalent for the word mace and as applied to the same billiard instrument.
Another very interesting thing that is discovered from a perusal of this old volume is that all sorts of games were then carried out upon the billiard table, of which nothing, at any rate to our knowledge, is practised or known at the present day. There was, for example, the game of fortification billiards, which included the forts, the pass, the batteries, the balls, the French quarter, the English quarter, the grand forts, the grand batteries, the colours, or flags, the advanced forts, the reserved forts, the attacking balls, and the defending balls. There were regular rules that had to be observed, and no doubt at a time when this country was feeling keenly interested on the subject of a possible Napoleonic invasion, a game of billiards played according to these regulations would enormously interest many players and especially naval and military men.
Amongst the different games played were the white winning game, the white losing game, and the white winning and losing game combined. Then there was the choice of balls game, the bricole game, the bar-hole game, the doublet game, the commanding game, the limited game, and the game of hazards. Of the carambole games them were the winning carambole game, the losing carambole game, the combined winning and losing carambole, and the Russian carambole game. Still other devices that amused our ancestors were the carline game, the four game, and the cushion game.
Much attention was also devoted to doublets, or doubles, as they are called in these days, and what is now termed the rebound from the cushion was then designated the reverberation. There were winning doublet hazards, losing doublet hazards, and winning and losing doublet hazards.
Some shrewd hints in strategy are given and a chapter is devoted to the things in billiards that are best avoided. On a number of plates at the end of the book some seventy different diagrams are printed, and for the purpose of these diagrams the table is divided up into eighteen inch squares, and a vast number of positions and sample strokes are thus provided for. These diagrams, some of which we make take the opportunity of reproducing at a later date, illustrate very clearly what may be termed the mathematical certainties of billiards, and any player who could devote some amount of time and patience to their study would doubtless end by discovering that much that at present appears to be very difficult and "chancey" on the board is really in accordance with set law, and more difficult really to miss than to accomplish, provided that the right knowledge and cue direction are brought to bear upon the stroke.