EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 201 



a ball. Even as it was, but for a certain 

 natural attraction in the pockets, large as they 

 were, taking up a considerable portion of this 

 table, this feat never could have been performed. 

 The surface was not slate, but a sort of wooden 

 ridge and furrow, with deep holes, covered over 

 with very rough baize. The balls were very 

 large, corresponding to the pockets. The only 

 plan of making a hazard was to hit your ball 

 very hard into one of these holes, out of which, 

 if it had force and way enough, it made a sort 

 of ricochet, and hopped over in the line of a 

 pocket, which, if it only landed near enough, 

 was sure to engulph it; for never had even 

 Scylla and Charybdis such powers of suction as 

 these pockets. It was rather a service of 

 danger looking on at one of these matches ; 

 for the room not being very much larger than 

 the table, if one of these cannon-balls in its 

 bound cleared the pocket, and took you in the 

 pit of the stomach, which it sometimes did, it 

 would have knocked you over, but for the wall, 

 that brought you up standing. Dick Burnaby 

 was a tremendous hand at this table, and, had 

 the play been high, he might have ruined 

 Stornoway; for he was a good player any- 

 where, but at this table invincible. Fortimately, 

 "the tables" were the highest stake ever 



