Among the domestic pastimes, playing at shovelboard claims a principal place. In former times the residences of the nobility, or the mansions of the opulent, were not thought to be complete without a shovelboard table; and this fashionable piece of furniture was usually stationed in the great hall. [906] The tables for this diversion were sometimes very expensive, owing to the great pains and labour bestowed upon their construction. "It is remarkable," says Dr. Plott, in his History of Staffordshire, "that in the hall at Chartley the shuffle-board table, though ten yards one foot and an inch long, is made up of about two hundred and sixty pieces, which are generally about eighteen inches long, some few only excepted, that are scarce a foot, which, being laid on longer boards for support underneath, are so accurately joined and glewed together, that no shuffle-board whatever is freer from rubbs or casting.—There is a joynt also in the shuffle-board at Madeley Manor exquisitely well done."
The length of these tables, if they be perfectly smooth and level, adds to their value in proportion to its increase; but they rarely exceed three feet or three feet and a half in width. At one end of the shovelboard there is a line drawn across parallel with the edge, and about three or four inches from it; at four feet distance from this line another is made, over which it is necessary for the weight to pass when it is thrown by the player, otherwise the go is not reckoned. The players stand at the end of the table, opposite to the two marks above mentioned, each of them having four flat weights of metal, which they shove from them one at a time alternately: and the judgment of the play is, to give sufficient impetus to the weight to carry it beyond the mark nearest to the edge of the board, which requires great nicety, for if it be too strongly impelled, so as to fall from the table, and there is nothing to prevent it, into a trough placed underneath for its reception, the throw is not counted; if it hangs over the edge, without falling, three are reckoned towards the player's game; if it lie between the line and the edge without hanging over, it tells for two; if on the line, and not up to it, but over the first line, it counts for one. The game, when two play, is generally eleven; but the number is extended when four or more are jointly concerned. I have seen a shovelboard-table at a low public-house in Benjamin-street, near Clerkenwell-green, which is about three feet in breadth and thirty-nine feet two inches in length, and said to be the longest at this time in London.
XV.—ANECDOTE OF PRINCE HENRY.
There certainly is not sufficient variety in this pastime to render it very attractive, but in point of exercise it is not inferior to any of the domestic amusements; for which reason it was practised by the nobility in former ages, when the weather would not admit of employment abroad. Prince Henry, the eldest son of James I., occasionally exercised himself in this manner, as the following anecdote may prove: it is recorded by one of his attendants, who declares that he was present at the time, and that he has not attributed to him a single sentence not uttered by him in this or any other of the anecdotes related by him; [907] and therefore I will give it in the author's own words:—"Once when the prince was playing at shoffleboard, and in his play changed sundry pieces, his tutor, being desirous that even in trifles he should not be new-fangled, said to him, that he did ill to change so oft; and therewith took a piece in his hand, and saying that he would play well enough therewith without changing, threw the piece on the board; yet not so well but the prince, smileing thereat, said, Well throwne, Sir. Whereupon Master Newton telling him, that he would not strive with a prince at shoffleboard, he answered, You gownsmen should be best at such exercises, being not meete for those that are more stirring. Yes, quoth Master Newton, I am meete for whipping of boyes. And hereupon the prince answered, You need not vaunt of that which a ploughman or cartdriver can doe better than you. Yet I can doe more, said Master Newton, for I can governe foolish children. The prince respecting him, even in jesting, came from the further end of the table, and smiling, said, while he passed by him, Hee had neede be a wise man himselfe that could doe that."
XVI.—BILLIARDS.
This pastime, which in the present day has superseded the game of shovelboard, and is certainly a more elegant species of amusement, admits of more variety, and requires at least an equal degree of skill in the execution. The modern manner of playing at billiards, and the rules by which the pastime is regulated, are so generally known, that no enlargement upon the subject is necessary. The invention of this diversion is attributed to the French, and probably with justice; but at the same time I cannot help thinking it originated from an ancient game played with small bowls upon the ground; or indeed that it was, when first instituted, the same game transferred from the ground to the table. [908] At the commencement of the last century, the billiard-table was square, having only three pockets for the balls to run in, situated on one of the sides; that is, at each corner one, and the third between them. About the middle of the table was placed a small arch of iron, and in a right line, at a little distance from it, an upright cone called the king. A representation of the billiard-table, according to this description, may be found in the frontispiece to a little duodecimo treatise called The School of Recreation, published in 1710. At certain periods of the game it was necessary for the balls to be driven through the one and round the other, without beating either of them down; and their fall might easily be effected because they were not fastened to the table; this is called the French game; and much resembled the Italian method of playing, known in England by the name of Trucks, which also had its king at one end of the table. Billiards are first mentioned as an unlawful game towards the close of the last reign, when billiard-tables were forbidden to be kept in public-houses, under the penalty of ten pounds for every offence. [909]
XVII.—MISSISSIPI.
This is played upon a table made in the form of a parallelogram. It much resembles a modern billiard-table, excepting that, instead of pockets, it has a recess at one end, into which the balls may fall; and this recess is faced with a thin board equal in height to the ledge that surrounds the table; and in it are fifteen perforations, or small arches, every one of them surmounted by a number from one to fifteen inclusive, the highest being placed in the middle, and the others intermixed on either side. The players have four or six balls at pleasure. These balls, which are usually made of ivory, and distinguished from each other by their colour, some being red and some white, they cast alternately, one at a time, against the sides of the table, whence acquiring an angular direction, and rolling to the arches, they strike against the intervening parts, or pass by them. In the first instance the cast is of no use; in the second the value of the numbers affixed to the arches through which they run is placed to the score of the player; and he who first attains one hundred and twenty wins the game. This pastime is included in the statute above mentioned relating to billiards, and the same penalty is imposed upon the publican who keeps a table in his house for the purpose of playing.