THE BOARD OF GREEN CLOTH 331 



any striking idea to the billiard players of this generation. 

 In no game of skill has professional proficiency made such 

 tremendous strides during the last half-century as in 

 billiards. There is as wide a gap between the best break 

 of Jonathan Kentfield on the old wooden, list-cushioned 

 tables, as between the best pace of the crack Shrewsbury 

 mail-coach in 1824 and the "Flying Scotchman" express 

 of the present year. 



Kentfield came over to England about the year 18 18, 

 and soon took his place in the front rank, till he surpassed 

 all his rivals and stood absolutely alone. His rooms at 

 Brighton were the most popular in the Kingdom. The 

 following, written in 1848, reads curiously after some of our 

 modern billiard feats : — " When playing the winning game 

 21 up, Kentfield gave his opponent 18 points, and won 16 

 games following. In playing the winning and losing game 

 24 up, he won 10 games, his adversary never scoring. 

 Kentfield doubled the red ball over one of the corner baulk 

 pockets, leaving his own ball under the side cushion. His 

 opponent played to drop the red into the corner pocket ; 

 failed, and left a cannon, and the games were all made off 

 the balls. In playing the non-cushion game, 16 up, he 

 screwed into the corner pocket off the red, and won in that 

 manner 16 games, his opponent not having a stroke. He 

 and another player of considerable eminence completed 30 

 games of 24 up within the hour. Forty-seven games of 

 100 up were also played in eight hours and a half The 

 biggest break made by Kentfield was 196." 



The leather-tipped cue was only introduced in 1807, and 

 "side" was in its infancy when Jonathan Kentfield appeared 

 upon the scene. The credit of this latter discovery belongs 

 to a marker, named Carr, engaged at the rooms of Mr 

 Bartley of Bath. Carr declared that the wonderful strokes 

 he made were due to a peculiar " twisting chalk " which he 

 had compounded, and he actually sold hundreds of little 

 pill-boxes full of powdered chalk, to credulous customers 

 at five shillings a box. The celebrated " Dutch Baron " 

 was really a marker from Hamburg and was a " dab " at 

 the spot-stroke when seven consecutive winning hazards 

 were considered a marvellous feat. As the ordinary game 



