Billiards through the Centuries
When prying into the dim beginning of things, it is far easier to invent plausible assertion rather than admit honest ignorance. Hence there is much picturesque writing which purports to acquaint us with the exact origin of billiards, but actually does no m ore than concoct pedigrees for the game, all more or less misleading. For instance, rather than confess want of knowledge, the Encyclopaedia Americana assures us that “billiards is known to have been played in a crude way since before the birth of Christ.”
The book is part of the personal collection of Peter Ainsworth. The public section of the collection can be accessed via the following link: https://www.flipsnack.com/hylandbilliards/. We publish books and magazines in PDF format on our website with the owner’s permission.