The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-06-10 00:00:00

ORIGIN OF BILLIARDS.'

The origin of billisde in uncertain. Some 'scribe the
invention to Ilenrique Perigee, an &Mid who heed in the
time of Charles IX., of France, but Bouillet gives England
the credit of the invention. Streit considers that it is
merely the game ol pailk-maille transferral from the
ground to the tabe. Crawley we. ones told that
the Chinese claimal possession of a game similar
to billiards, but he says himself that it was probably
Invented by the Dutch, from whom the French,
the Germans, and the Italians, soon learnevl it.
Cavendish does not eommit himself to an opinion, but
makes the cautious remark that the authorities seen, to be
agreed only on one pant. viz., that nothing is known about
billiards prior to the middle of the sixteenth century. As
Spenser and Shakespeare both allude to the game, the one
in " Mother Hubbard's Tale," and the other In" Antony
and Cleopatra," this is probably correct. But it is
tolerably evident there I. eonsiderable difficulty in deckling
what country or period Met claimed billiards for its own.
However Cavendish has succeeded in getting together
from early •ources much that is very Interesting on the
progress of the gams hams that in the first half of
the eighteenth century tie rules of billiards allowed cue-
playing, but tor many years after only good players were
allowed to strike with flat-ended wooden cues, Ric pro-
prietors of rooms Mating on the use of the mace,
for fear of damage to the cloth. The develop-
ment of the game wan very slow, owing to
the poorly-constructed tables and to the general
all th nee of the mace, but t e beginning of thiscentury the
introduction of cuapla and the refinements of leathern
tipa, chalk, and side• es caused almut a revolution
in the science of billiardi. The tip being once added to the
cue, sidextrokes soon followed as a matter of coarse.
This appears to have been discovered by • billiard
room proprietor, named Bartley, and he after a time
imparted the secret to Carr, his marker. The
latter is said to have tmt the secret to himself, but,
nevertheless, to have nmk it a source of profit by a very
ingenious swindle. When pressed as to his peculiar
powers, he reduced Mies of twisting chalk, which be
mid he had invented. These were nothing but pillboxes
filled with ordinary chair, which he soil roe half a-crown
a box. The spot-stroke was first heard of about the same
reveled, and at this too Carr took the lead. From this time
forward, thanks to the rapid improvement in billiard
tables and the use or indiarubber cushions, a
great impetus was even to the game, and breaks
of conealerable length were the result. Brighton
"Jonathan 'succeeded Carr, and renaaineo unrivalled until
1849, and then Roberta neural the championship, which he
retained until 1870„ In the latter year, he IDS it to Cook,
the present holder. This match etched extraordinary in-
terest, partly from the reputation Cook had won through
his enonnoes breaks, and partly from the fact that no one
had ever before had the courage to play Robert. level at
the English game, in which he had been master for twenty
years. Since then, his son and Bennett have held the
championship and the beautiful cup that accompanies it,
but Cook has again succeeded in wresting from than the
championship honours.

ARTHUR ORTON'S BIRTHPLACE.
An historical description if Wapping, past and present,
is given by. writer in the Daily News. We extract the
following interesting account of the place which hag been
so often referred to in the Tichbome romance :--" One day
in 1783, Dr. Johnson. talking with lioewell, was pleased to
enlarge on the wonderful extent and variety of London,
and to observe, 'that men o (carious inquiry might WO In
It such males of life as very few could even imagine. He
In particular,' says Harwell, reconimeruled us to explore
1 %%spying, which we resolved to do.' It wan once a great
wash, or marsh, where the Thames wandered at will Over
the low Linda, or, drawing sullenly back with the refluent
tides, left great banks of mud, dull reaches of swampy soil,
and ditches where ague and fever lurked at all lemons
of the year. The ground was recovered
from this watery dominion in the reign of
queen Elisabeth, and Wapping became a
place of temporary abode for seafaring men, and of more
permanent settlement for tradesmen dealing in commali-
ties for the supply of shipping and milora That was ite
character when Johnson thought it worth exploring; and
that, with the addition of the vast commercial interests
represented by the Docks, is the character it still
But Wapping had certain grim associations in old times,
which made it a spot of evil reputation to mariners in.
dined to illegal adventures on the high seas. For there,
upon the dreary shores, where land and water mingled
in • miry confusion of each other's limit', was
Execution Dock, where pirates and ma-rovers were
hanged at low water-mark, and suffered to remain
till three tides had overflowed them. In later
times the bodies of these malefactors were suspended in
chains at the same spot and left to bleach, and dry, and
shed their ghastly fragments on the wind. The custom
continued until some way into the present century, and
old Townsend, the Bow-street officer, recommended its
perpetuation as a good deterrent example. Wapping has
it, historical incident too; fur it was at the Red Cow, in
Anchor-and-Hope Alley, isear King Edward's Stairs, that
Judge Jefferies, reeking to maws the popular wrath, and
get abroad, after the Revolution of 1868, was discovered,
disguised as a sailor, and drinking a pot of ale. The
populace, being informal of the fact, seised him,
carried him before the Lord Mayor, and put matters in
training for his committal to the Tower. In quieter days
this river-side place was Ina made the subject of • clerical
pun, the Rev. Rowboat Hill having told • congregation of
the natives that they were ' who iing sinners.' And in
the plaintive ditty f 'Wapping CI Stain,' composed by
John Percy, the narrow ways shout the London Docks
have a bit of romance, yet vocal at odd maroons, in spite of
the fresher attractions of the music-halls. But all them
matters refer to the Wapping of former times,
of times before it had been rendered famoas by
the doings of an Orton, or the straggles of a
Claimant. A good deal of alteration Was introduced
into the character of the locality by the making of the Docks
I —St. Katherine's and the London —in the early year. of
the century. Thenceforth Wapping became, not merely •
, place of sojourn for poor seafaring men, but • great seat of
I commerce. We are in a city of watery waya of lanes and
high reads, where traffic is on • fluid element, and the
wash of waves is in the ear. The wares are not throe of
the oft, it is true; they are only the shigiih undulations
of artificial inlets from the Thames, stirred the passing of
the barges to and fro. Tame craft are lords and masters
of the place, sail everything else must stand aside for them.
The popalation of R apping is amphibious. The people
are half maritime, half commarial. Even the dock le-
bourere salute each other with the 'withal phrase, 'What
cheer? The Thames police, who an fining hereaboute,
coming and going in wherries between their floating sta-
tions and the land, are, both in bearing 11011 costume, as
much milers as constables. A large number of the shops
In Wapping and in neighbouring Shadwell are de.
voted to the satisfaction of marine needs. Above
all tower the Titanic warehouses, with their backs
to the river, some of which have been recently rebuilt on a
scale of yet greater mistimes, while others are in the act of
being reconstructed to suit the augmenting trade of the
times. All this speaks well for the prosperity of \Yapping;
yet in the close alleys we find many lamentable tokens of
the poverty that always attends on wealth. Amongst the
youth of both Saxes rap and bare feet are very much the
wear; and the WOUND have that overworked and underfed
look common in neighbourhoods of this kind. The
wharfs and docks give casual employment to a
large number of poor, and when these are out of
•gob they hang about in rueful indolence, This, then, is
Delos-land; and here, in every other shop-window, you
Mae see • portrait of the chnmene, as large as me, lii
uninination with the announcement that ' Sir Roger C. D.
7Schbome, Bart.,' will make his appearance at certain
East-end theatre& Here it was that ' Bullpolry Orton,'
in the days of his youth, was tied np in largn
Scotch meat hamper., as the innocent victim of
those practical jokes in which his companions de-
lighted. Here it was that 'oil George Orton ' tested
the strength of his arm and the sharpness of his pig-whig
on the 11uivering flanks cd the joker. Here 14 am. that
Arthur, grown somewhat in years and in peaw, profferal
lore to Mies Later, and 4..41464 a teWg epistle
into the hand id the young lady who is now Mrs.
Hannah Johnson, wklow. And here it was that
the Claimant laid that famous Christmas visit to
the Globe public-house of which Mr. Hawkins has
rustic so much. This is Ortouiand, and Arthur is
the pares /mi. What • strange fate that that wane,
chuckle headed, vulgurjoung butcher boy should now be
1.0 00C11 tante.' about al over the &shah speaking world I
We recently lie.-... 1 a girl in listlinal-green ask her elder
sister, in respect of a caricature they were etailying, 'But
who is John Hull ? ' 101 l possible to conceive any one in
these ihys asking, 'Who was Arthur Orton ?' "

The lAncashire awl Yorkshire Railway Company have
lust conceded an increase Ipay to thoir officer, end okrico,
the given varying from Is. to 10a. with an orange
el 2s. to 30.

Mr. John Ttright, IL P., is now staying at Ilfracombe
with some members of his family, and visited Barnstaple
Yesterday. He via reseinieed by many old inhabitants,
having spoken at awning,le 20 year. ago during the Corn-
Law agitation.
The vestry authorities of fit James's pariah, in the
West-end of London, are about taking steps preliminary to
tputting
in forest the provision* of the Act for the sup-
minion of Sunday triohng, and there is little doubt that
ortlythc rdloinang pares will follow the example.'
Last week the total number of paupers in the metro-
rhlre 16015, of vb°6? 54,33 were inmate, a the
MM
° 'IO, pd 09481 ramrod out-door relief. Oont
pared with the eorrespondiall furred of 1872 this hoe been
a decrease of 3,687.

Fifty-one fine salmon were caught lu a net at ono shot
at the Fancy Station" on the Tay, near Perth, • day ot
two ago, and hinoteen mon) were caught at different *beta
making a total of seventy. Twenty-one were caught
s, " a
one shot at the "Venue'opposite the County Building",
where fifty where "aught • short time ago,
Berl Fltswilliam ham laid the
.foundation skim of a new
ki. ioni,hip's own slit, at Wentworth, near
There was • great concouree at Ft-
oat, and orrenil samba+ a( his lerdaW. slio
wilairod the caremoray. Tits actin.* si mowed.
bs ot s most awls sad rkat aim

RiNY-PAItIfING IN A2413111.10A.
Some mailminet bas been mused in Weaking!oti by
tha discovery at ea extensive " baby-farming esta-
blishment, conducted after the moot approved English
faahlon. It ODOM that the medical military inspector
to the Board et Health,while making inspections of
houses in a pleas called liog-alley, observed • coloured
worn named Lucy Larkins earwig from • bottle •
"NY delicate white infant about three or four weeks
old. In answer to inquiries respecting the child she
stated that it bad been brought to her from the
hoes, of a Ilia Dr, Jim Wilson, from whom the had
raceived several other infants, whom she hail nursed
"as long as they Bred." Further investigations were
made, and it woe ascertained that Hiss DT. Jane
Wilson kept • " hospital," that the names by
which the births at thm hospital have been reported are
fictitious —it being, according to her own account,
necessary for tho " success of her business to pre-
serve inviolate the confidence of her patients and
facts communicated to her in is profess' al way."
She cannot tell, even approsimately, how many births
she has conducted, as slic has Milt no hooks which
would afford any information. The Boanl of Health
is about to take such action in the Man an the law will
admit, and at Om same time intends to place the
matter before the legislative Assembly, in onler that
MeUttra.% may be taken for the I,rima-v*o,n of life and
public moral.. It is to be hoped that these
will be more succesaful in attaining the desired object
than those taken by our own Legislature at home. In
the meantime the h'ilo Fork lirrald hi touch hocked
at this " revelation of crime in the capital."