| No. 5 Vol. 1 : August, 1911 |  |
Price 2/6 per annum (Post Free) : Single Copies 2d (2½d Post Free). |
NOTES BY THE WAY
CONCERNING A HOLIDAY TOPIC
At this time of year we feel quite grateful for the temporary lull which enables us to pen our notes in a holiday mood. For the time being we are not called upon to write about the prowess of battling cuemen, and even the prospects of next season are not yet insistent enough to prevent us from putting them aside until the shadowy "to-morrow," when they will have to be dealt with.
Such a respite from the stress of serious billiards permits our notes to stray for once along some of the less frequented paths of billiard lore. The prospect is alluring in its breadth and diversity. We might skim lightly over the bibliography of the game, and touch upon the literary labour of our predecessors in free and careless style, imbued with the spirit of summer. But, surely, this is a task more fitting to the midnight oil and crackling fires of winter. For, in truth, the old masters of our craft took themselves very seriously, and as the first book which happens to fall to hand as the result of a blind dip in our library is—"A Philosophic Essay on the Game of Billiards," dated 1808, we prefer to give the subject a miss in baulk while the heat wave is with us.
There are entertaining possibilities about a glance at the dark and devious methods of the sharpers of the past, but this is really no reason why we should turn back a page of billiard history to the extent of enlarging on an aspect of the game which is happily extinct. No, let us abjure these things, and seek a change by attempting to lift the veil which hangs over the origin of our great national pastime. But this is not the time to work with the calculating mind of the historical student, or to indulge in a long and learned disquisition with the idea of showing how far Shakespeare was guilty of an anachronism when he put a cue in the hand of Cleopatra.
Something decidedly more summer-like is the need of the melting moment, and we think our wants are supplied by four rare old prints which we reproduce to enliven our text.
Open-air Billiards
Our seventeenth century artist has bequeathed to us a picture which proves that the game was played in the open air in his day and generation. Possibly, this is evidence as far as it goes of the descent of the game from "paille maille," a kind of croquet played on a lawn with wooden balls and clubs. But we are inclined to side with the experts who consider that English billiards is derived from a mixture of the ancient and native games of "closh" and "shovel-board," and without waxing warm in the argument, we will leave the origin of billiards to take care of itself and turn again to the quaint old cut before us.
The idea of open-air billiards certainly has its merits, especially with ladies taking part, as shown in the picture. But the young lady in the background seems to be a sort of moveable cue rack, with duties to perform analogous to those entrusted to the golf caddie, and in these suffragette days we are not taking risks by attempting to urge the revival of anything which might place the ladies in a position of inferiority at the billiard table. With this exception, however, we think that "mixed" billiards in the open air would be delightful during the hot weather, and it is rather surprising that something of the sort has not been attempted by society people in search of a novelty. As far as we know, however, the only occasion on which a billiard table has been erected in the open air in this country within the memory of living players, was when a table was put up in the open quite recently to enable cinematograph pictures to be taken of the strokes of a noted professional.
Our next illustration proves that the game did not change a great deal in the ten years which divide it from our first picture. But what cues the players are armed with, to be sure. Of course, they are really the old "maces" which preceded cues, and which, with true British hatred of the "new-fangled," we retained for years after cues had become universal on the Continent. But from the look of them in our picture, the implement would not make bad hockey stick, and a close examination of the engraving shows that the balls appear almost as they might have done if a hen had laid them on the table. However, we will be charitable to the manufacturers of the period, and lay all the faults at the door of the artist. But he might have shown the "King" on the table as well as the "Port," and the absence of this accessory, which was undoubtedly part of the game at the period, only aggravates his terrible treatment of the balls and maces. The King we may explain, was an upright cone of wood or iron, and the "Port" was a small arch of ivory, which was placed about where the pyramid spot now stands, while the "King" was enthroned on a corresponding spot at the other end of the table. Incidentally, it seems that the gentleman in our first engraving has managed to get his head of hair in the way of the "King" and in spite of his fine appearance, students of the history of the game would sooner have seen the "King," than the locks of this gallant gentleman of the long ago.
It is impossible to reconstruct the earliest games of billiards in a manner comprehensible to modern players without entering upon detailed explanations which would soon tire the reader. But there are many points of interest which are worth a passing allusion, and having noted the position of the "King" and "Port" in our preceding paragraph, we will proceed to explain that only two balls were used, and the game was on much the same principle as single pool. Points were scored by knocking the object ball into the gaps in the table, equivalent to our pockets, and it was part of the game to score by passing through the "Port" or touching the "King." One of the most difficult strokes of the game was to drive the ball through the arch and round the "King" without toppling over either of them, and we read that the game was five up by daylight and three up by candle-light. Anything in the nature of a losing hazard went against the striker, hence, no doubt, the origin of the term, and there were also penalties for upsetting the "Port" or "King" and for knocking the balls off the table. In fact, it is very curious how some rules have been handed down through the centuries practically unchanged.
A set of rules which must be fully three hundred years old penalises— "He that in play the adverse ball shall touch with stick, hands, or cloaths." and says— "One foot upon the ground must still be set, or one end's lost," and "end," we may remark, equalling a point. There is also a penalty—"If you should twice touch a ball." But to "Lose one if either lay their arm or hand on board when they do play, is a rule which has certainly become obsolete by the passage of time.
Our final illustration brings the game indoors, and for some reason or other the "Port" is stuck in a corner of the table. The "mace" is evidently still in use, and it is worth noting that in none of the pictures is there any indication of the players removing their coats in the case of gentlemen, or dressing specially for the game in the case of ladies. Our idea is that the custom of taking off the coat to play billiards is of comparatively modern origin, as the prints of Kentfield and the elder Roberts, reproduced in the "Billiard Times" from drawings made about sixty years ago show both these old players with their coats on, from which it seems that almost within the memory of living men it was scarcely "correct" to play billiards in one's shirt-sleeves. Be this as it may, there are one or two very excellent general maxims to be found in the old set of rules already referred to, and we make no apology for re-publishing the couplet which states—"If any stander by shall chance to bet— And will instruct, he then must pay the set." Even if we have improved the game out of all knowledge, and do not play buttoned up in tight coats, this sample of the billiard wisdom of our forefathers is as fresh and true as it was on the day when it first saw the light.
Points from the Past
This little ramble through billiard history ought to be useful as well as interesting. It proves that during its infancy billiards was an outdoor game in which ladies participated quite as a matter of course. Taking into consideration the vagaries of our climate, we are scarcely prepared to advocate outdoor billiards, but we do think that ladies might well regard the game with the favour it had with the beauties of old. It seems that when the game came indoors ladies left it alone. Our last illustration is not graced by a single representative of the fair sex, and it is not easy to understand why this change took place. Possibly, as the game improved, the lords of creation kept it to themselves, and if this was indeed the fact the time has surely arrived when the ladies ought to assert their ancient right to the game of billiards. Indisputably, they helped to make the game, and it is equally certain that the history of the game would have kept clear of sundry blemishes if the ladies had retained their connection with it. Happily, there are signs that history is about to repeat itself, billiards is increasing in popularity among the fair sex every day, and we hope it will not be long before pictures of billiards will again demand a proportion of feminine figures to make them complete and accurate.