In "Roberts on Billiards"—a book from which I have previously quoted—he mentions William Dufton, L. Kilkenny, W. D. Stanley, W. M. Green, George Mulberry, Alfred Hughes, George Davis, W. C. Hitchin, Tom Morris, Harry Evans, and John Smith as being players "to any of whom I have been in the habit of allowing 350 in 1,000." I never saw Stanley—who was, I fancy, an elder brother of D. Richards and S. W. Stanley—Mulberry, Hitchin, Davis, or Smith play, so cannot write anything about them. I have already devoted some little space to Morris and Evans, whilst Alfred Hughes was a player of no class, as compared with his brother Charles. This leaves me with Dufton. Kilkenny, and Green to write about.
With regard to the first mentioned—"Tutor to the Prince of Wales," as he invariably styled himself—I feel bound to say that, in my opinion, he was a much over-rated player. As I saw him perform for the first time in 1866, when it is possible that he may have been going off his game, I should have hesitated to write so plainly had not my view of his lack of ability been fully confirmed by one who constantly played with him, and in whose judgment I can thoroughly trust. His long "jennies," on the making of which his reputation mainly rested, are now brought off with something like certainty by any high-class marker, when playing upon his own table.
This last proviso is very necessary, for I have seen several markers who were really fine players on the tables to which they were accustomed, cut very poor figures when taking part in a handicap upon a table which was strange to them.
My impression is that Dufton would have never made the name he did but for confining his play almost entirely to exhibition games with Roberts. These matches would naturally have lost much of their attraction if the champion had invariably won, so Dufton had his share of successes, and came to be regarded as being able to tackle Roberts, with 350 points in 1,000, with a fair chance of winning, whereas it is quite certain that a start of half the game would not have brought them together at the close when the scratch man was doing his best.
The last time, I ever saw Dufton was at a match between Joseph Bennett and Taylor, for which I was finding a portion of the stake for the former. This was pretty generally known, and, when the ex-champion was holding a very useful lead, Dufton came to me and said, "May I stand half a sovereign with you-?" to which I assented. The game, however, was not half over, for Taylor, who was a rare battler, gradually crept up and took a slight lead. Then Dufton approached me again, and said that he.thought he would sooner have his bet off. Knowing that the poor fellow was in very low water, I, of course, agreed. The game fluctuated in remarkable fashion, first one and then the other holding a lead of a very few points, and twice more did Dufton declare his half-sovereign to be on, only to call it off again.
It was "off" when Bennett got home by a very narrow margin, for which I felt sorry at the time, and still more so a few weeks afterwards when I heard that Dufton had put an end to his life. This was the more sad because I am sure that many of us would have been glad to do all in our power for him, had we any idea that he was in such dire straits. There is no doubt that he was a very moderate player, but in all other respects was a credit to his profession, being a particularly well-conducted man who was extremely popular. I did not know him well enough to speak positively on the point, but should imagine that he was too proud to sink to the level of a man who systematically lives on his friends, and preferred to end his troubles in tragic fashion.