'The Gentile, cleanly and most ingenious Game at Billiards' was a resource at home; and it was played on a table like ours--an oblong wooden table, covered with green cloth, and with pockets of netting, in precisely the same position as now, the cushions being stuffed with fine flax or cotton. The game was not played as we play it, but there were two balls, a port or archway at one end, and a king or cone at the other. The cues were not like ours, but more like maces, only much heavier. 'Your Sticks ought to be heavy, made of _Brazile Lignum Vitæ_, or some other weighty wood which at the broad end must be tipt with Ivory.' The game was not only played in private, but in coffee houses. 'At the Greyhound Coffee House near Monmouth Street in Soho, are to be sold two new Billiard Tables, and all other goods and conveniences fit for a Coffee House,' etc. And again: 'A very good French Billiard Table little the worse for wearing, full size, with all the Materials fit for French or English play &c. Enquire at Scot's Coffee House.' Indeed Cotton says there were few towns of note in England which had not a public billiard-table. He, however, warns people against 'those spunging Caterpillars, which swarm where any Billiard Tables are set up, who make that single room their Shop, Kitching and Bed Chamber.' [Illustration: Billiards.[402]] [Footnote 402: This illustration, although from the 1709 edition of Cotton's _Compleat Gamester_, is of older date; indeed, it is identical with the first edition of 1674. The fact of its being a text-book in Anne's reign shows that the game had not then been modified.] The rough sports, such as cudgel-playing, foot-ball, wrestling, throwing, boxing, leaping, and running, were kept alive by the country wakes, which took place on the dedication festival of the parish church. These were sometimes supplemented by a grinning match, such as that which drew down Addison's wrath,[403] and which was afterwards abandoned, in deference to his opinion. [Footnote 403: _Spectator_, No. 173.]