LOUIS XIV. AND BILLIARDS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1520, 19 February 1886, Page 3

LOUIS XIV. AND BILLIARDS.

In France the game ot billiards did not come thoroughly into fashion until the reign of Liuis XIV., with whom it was a great favourite.

The "Grand Monarque" suffered much with indigestion, and his physicians advised him jto indulge daily in billiards as affording a means of gentle and sa'utary exercise. A billiard table of the style of the day was accordingly erected in a room near the " (Eil de-Bauf " at Versailles

In tbi« saloon the courtiers used to congregate and applaud the royal player's cannons in their matches with the Duke de Villeroi and M. de Cbamillard, both of whom were far superior to the king, although they were too loyal to defeat His Msjesy over often. Mdme. de Maintenon, though she would greatly have preferred playing

brelan, was obliged to attend on these occasions, and revenge herself while acting as " marker " by uomerci'ullv qiu/Z'og the royal player when bin strokes were not successful. Later on, however, when he was more advanced in years, his adroit wife managed to keep Louis XIY. to herself by giving theatrical representa tions in her own apartments tW ousting billiards from their place of honour in the monarch's predictions. During bis reign, and indeed until the present century, the billiard-'able by no means offered the perfecti <n which it has now attained.

The elasticity of the " cushions" was nil, the u pockets " were so wide as to render many strokes impossil le and the " cues " were devoid of " ti ps " or " precedes " unknown until invented by Mangin, some sixty years ago 11 Screws " and " Side" were consequently utterly impracticable. Up to the year 1830 the "tables" were square,rested on heavy, clumsy looking legs, and were not the ornaments', mathematically correct objects they are now.

Mangin the inventor of leather " tip«," we may add, wa« the firnt feasor of billiards in Franc* 1 , ami »*njoyed a European reputation, bontiny amongst his pupils the Dues de Birri and d'AngouY'tne, ai:d the 0 nmt d'Artois, with the latter of wh in, when Charles X., he usad to p'av frequently at the Tuilleries. Since Mangin's death, w iich occurred about IS4O, there has been a succession of great masters of the game, amongst whom we tnay mention Berger, who died a few years since.