SOCIETY AT ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS - Online Book

People, Society & Culture of Tunbridge Wells in the 18th Century & later.

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Royal Tunbridge Wells
At Tunbridge Wells, after the second Act of Parliament received the royal assent, new games were invented to evade the law. Roulet, or Roly-Poly, and Marlborough's Battles, came into vogue, and, above all, E O, a description of which Edmond Hoyle has handed down to generations that know it not. " An E O table is circular in form, though in general about four feet in diameter," he wrote. " The ex­treme circumference is a kind of counter or depot for the stakes, marked all round with the letters E and O, on which each adventurer places his money according to his inclination. The interior part of the table consists first of a kind of gallery, or rolling place, for the ball, which, with the outward parts above, called depot or counter, is stationary or fixed. The most interior part moves on an axis or pivot, and is turned about with handles, while the ball is set in motion round the gallery. This part is generally divided into niches or inter­stices, twenty of which are marked with the letter E, and the other twenty with the letter O. The lodging of the ball in any of the niches distinguished by those letters determine the wager. The proprietors of the tables have two bar holes, and are obliged to take all bets 266
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