How old is the game of billiards?

Billiards has been a popular game with the aristocracy of the world. Some of the finest homes & clubs have billiard tables in them. The game is so old that no one can say when it began. It was perhaps played in ancient Egypt. The Greeks know the game as long ago as 400 B.C. Catkire More, a King of Ireland, left behind him fifty-five billiard balls of brass, with the pools & cues of the same material in the second century after Christ. St. Augustine has mentioned billiards in his "Confessions" which was written in the fifth century. One of complaints of Mary, Queen of Scots when she was kept in prison in the year 1576, was that her billiard table had been taken away! The first description of billiards in English is found in a book called "Compleat Gamester" by Charles Cotton published in the year 1674. Some pictures of these days depicts that there were all kinds of obstacles on the table, such as hoops, & pegs, & "forts". The player had to go around or through these obstacles without ...  more