t to your Discretion to make; proportionable to the Room you design
it for; It ought to be _railed_ round, and this Rail or Ledge a little
swelled or stufft with fine Flox or Cotton, that may yield to the Ball
when struck against it, and expedites rather than deads the Flight of
the Ball; though that happens according to the Violence of the Stroke or
Push: The _Superficies_ of the Table ought to be covered with Green fine
Cloath, clean and free from Knots: The Board must be levelled as exactly
as is possible for the Eye and Hand of the most curious Joyner to Level,
to the end your Ball may run true upon any part of the Table, without
leaning or declining to any side of it: I must confess I do believe
there are few have been so careful in this last thing, as they ought,
because they have not timely foreseen, if the Boards, whereof the Table
is made, be _well-seasoned_, and not subject to _Warp_, and that the
_Floor_ whereon it stands be even and level; so that through the
Ill-seasonedness of the one, or Unevennes of the other, as likewise in
time by the weight of the Table, and the Gamesters yielding and giving
way, there are very few found true. And indeed without a Table be
exactly true, a good Gamester can never shew the Excellency of his Skill
and Art, but a very Bungler sometimes, by being well acquainted with the
Turnings and Windings of a false Table, may beat a good Gamester with
great vexation and shame, who otherwise would have given him any odds
whatsoever. Therefore let me tell you, it will conduce as much to the
Interest of the Master of the House, where a _Billiard Table_ is kept,
to see that it be well and truly levelled and kept, as it does to the
Pleasure and satisfaction of a good Gamester, whose Skill is best seen
and exhibited on such Tables, and never comes unattended with Company
and Profit to the House, by his Recommendation he gives abroad of it.
And now let us proceed to the rest of its parts, and fit it for our
Play; and then let's to't as you list.

2. The four Corners of the Table must be furnished with _four Holes_,
and exactly in the middle of each side _one Hole_, and these Holes must
be hung at the bottoms with _Nets_, Which Holes are named _Hazards_,
because if either by Skill or Chance one Gamester strikes anothers Ball
into these Holes, or Hazards, as we will now call them, he wins One; the
_Nets_ are made to receive the Ball, and keep them from falling to the
Ground when hazarded; and i