KNAVE OUT OF DOORS occurs also in the same play, together with RUFF, which is proposed to be played with honours; double ruff, and English ruff, with honours, are mentioned in the Complete Gamester, published in 1674, and is distinguished from French ruff. LANSQUENET is a French game, and took its name from the Lansquenets, or light German troops, employed by the kings of France in the fifteenth century.1 BASSET, said by Dr. Johnson to have been invented at Venice, was a very fashionable game towards the close of the seventeenth century. OMBRE was brought into England by Catherine of Portugal, queen to Charles II. QUADRILLE, a modern game, bears great analogy to ombre, with the addition of a fourth player, which is certainly a great improvement. WHIST, or as it was formerly written, whisk, is a game now held in high estimation. At the commencement of last century, according to Swift, it was a favourite pastime with clergymen, who played the game with swabbers; these were certain cards by which the holder was entitled to part of the stake, in the same manner that the claim is made for the aces at quadrille. Whist, in its present state of improvement, may properly be considered as a modern game, and was not, says the hon. Daines Barrington, played upon principles till about fifty years ago, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown coffee-house in Bedford-row. Mr. Barrington's paper on card-playing in the Archæologia, was published in 1787, and the author says that the first mention he finds of the game of whist is in the Beaux Stratagem, a comedy by Geo. Farquhar, pub. A. D. 1707. He also thinks that whist might have originated from the old game of trump. Cotgrave explains the French word triomphe in this manner; the game called ruff, or trump; also the ruff, or trump in it. To the games already mentioned we may add the following: Put, and the High Game; Plain Dealing, Wit and Reason, Costly Colours, Five Cards, Bone Ace, Queen Nazareen, Lanterloo, Penneech, Art of Memory, Beast, Cribbage, and All Fours. Nearly all these games may be found in a small Bullet, Recherches Hist. sur Cartes à jouer, p. 152. Perhaps this may be the same as the game called Ace of Hearts, prohibited with all lotteries by cards and dice, an. 12 Geo. II. cap. 38, sect. 2. book entitled the Complete Gamester, with the directions how to play them. Crimp, mentioned in the Spectator,' I take to be a game played with the cards, and one might be led to think the same of Roulet by the wording of the act 18 Geo. II. by which it is prohibited. The words are, "And whereas a certain pernicious game, called Roulet, or Roly-poly, is daily practised," the act then directs" that no place shall be kept for playing at the said game of roulet, or roly-poly, or any other game with cards or dice," &c. XXV. THE GAME OF GOOSE-AND OF THE SNAKE. In addition to the pastimes mentioned in the preceding pages, I shall produce two or three more; and they are such as require no skill in the performance, but depend entirely upon chance for the determination of the contest. We have a childish diversion usually introduced at Christmas time, called the Game of Goose. This game may be played by two persons; but it will readily admit of many more; it originated, I believe, in Germany, and is well calculated to make children ready at reckoning the produce of two given numbers. The table for playing at goose is usually an impression from a copper-plate pasted upon a cartoon about the size of a sheet almanack, and divided into sixty-two small compartments arranged in a spiral form, with a large open space in the midst marked with the number sixty-three; the lesser compartments have singly an appropriate number from one to sixty-two inclusive, beginning at the outmost extremity of the spiral lines. At the commencement of the play, every one of the competitors puts a stake into the space at No. 63. There are also different forfeitures in the course of the game that are added, and the whole belongs to the winner. At No. 5 is a bridge which claims a forfeit at passing; at 19, an alehouse where a forfeit is exacted and to stop two throws; at 30, a fountain where you pay for washing; at 42, a labyrinth which carries you back to 23; at 52, the prison where you must rest until relieved by another casting the same throw; at 58, the grave whence you begin the game again; and at 61, the goblet where you pay for tasting.? The game is played with two dice, and every player throws in his turn as he sits at the table: he must have a counter or some 1 Vol. v. No. 523. See Des Lust und Spiel Hauses, published at Buda, 1680. other small mark which he can distinguish from the marks of his antagonists, and according to the amount of the two numbers thrown upon the dice he places his mark; that is to say, if he throws a four and a five, which amount to nine, he places his mark at nine upon the table, moving it the next throw as many numbers forward as the dice permit him, and so on until the game be completed, namely, when the number sixty-three is made exactly; all above it the player reckons back, and then throws again in his turn. If the second thrower at the beginning of the game casts the same number as the first, he takes up his piece, and the first player is obliged to begin the game again. If the same thing happens in the middle of the game, the first player goes back to the place the last came from. It is called the game of the goose, because at every fourth and fifth compartment in succession a goose is depicted, and if the cast thrown by the player falls upon a goose, he moves forward double the number of his throw. We have also the Game of Snake, and the more modern Game of Matrimony, with others of the like kind; formed upon the same plan as that of the goose, but none of them, according to my opinion, are in the least improved by the variations. XXVI.-CROSS AND PILE. Cross and pile, or with us head or tail, is a silly pastime well enough known among the lowest and most vulgar classes of the community, and to whom it is at present very properly confined; formerly, however, à teld a higher rank, and was introduced at the court. Edward 11. was partial to this and such like frivolous diversions, and spent much of his time in the pursuit of them. In one of his wardrobe rolls we meet with the following entries: "Item, paid to Henry, the king's barber, for money which he lent to the king to play at cross and pile, five shillings. Item, paid to Pires Barnard, usher of the king's chamber, money which he lent the king, and which he lost at cross and pile; to Monsieur Robert Wattewille eightpence. A halfpenny is generally now used in playing this game; but any other coin with a head impressed on one side will answer the purpose: the reverse of the head being called the tail without respect to the figure upon it, and the same if it was blank. Anciently the English coins were stamped on one side Antiq. Repert. vol. ii. p. 58. with a cross. One person tosses the halfpenny up and the other calls at pleasure head or tail; if his call lies uppermost when the halfpenny descends and rests upon the ground, he wins; and if on the contrary, of course he loses. Cross and pile is evidently derived from a pastime called Ostrachinda, O☛rparivda, known in ancient times to the Grecian boys, and practised by them upon various occasions; having procured a shell, it was seared over with pitch on one side for distinction sake, and the other side was left white; a boy tossed up this shell and his antagonist called white or bl k, Nuž et nuɛpa, (literally night and day), as he thought proper, and his success was determined by the white or black part of the shell being uppermost. CHAPTER III. !. The Lord of Misrule said to be peculiar to the English.-II. A Court Officer.III. The Master of the King's Revels.-IV. The Lord of Misrule and his Conduct reprobated.-V. The King of Christmas-of the Cockneys-VI. A King of Christmas at Norwich.-VII. The King of the Bean.-VIII. Whence originated. IX. The Festival of Fools.-X. The Boy Bishop.-XI. The FoolPlough.-XII. Easter Games.-XIII. Shrove-Tuesday.-XIV. Hock-Tuesday. -XV. May-Games.-XVI. The Lord and Lady of the May.-XVII. Grand May-Game at Greenwich.-XVIII. Royal May-Game at Shooter's-hill.—XIX. May Milk-Maids.-XX. May Festival of the Chimney Sweepers.-XXI. WhitsunGames.-XXII. The Vigil of Saint John the Baptist, how kept.-XXIII. Its supposed origin.-XXIV. Setting of the Midsummer Watch.-XXV. Processions on Saint Clement's and Saint Catherine's day.-XXVI. Wassails.-XXVII. Sheep-shearing and Harvest-home.-XXVIII. Wakes.-XXIX. Sunday Festivals. -XXX. Church Ales.-XXXI. Fairs, and their diversions and abuses.-XXXII. Bonfires.-XXXIII. Illuminations.- XXXIV. Fireworks.-XXXV. London Fireworks.-XXXVI. Fireworks on Tower-hill, at Public Gardens, and in Pageants. I. THE LORD OF MISRULE PECULIAR TO ENGLAND. It is said of the English, that formerly they were remarkable for the manner in which they celebrated the festival of Christmas; at which season they admitted variety of sports and pastimes. not known, or little practised in other countries. The mock prince, or lord of misrule, whose reign extended through the greater part of the holidays, is particularly remarked by foreign writers, who consider him as a personage rarely to be met with out of England; 2 and, two or three centuries back, perhaps this observation might be consistent with the truth; but I trust we shall upon due examination be ready to conclude, that anciently this frolicksome monarch was well known upon the continent, where he probably received his first honours. In this kingdom his power and his dignities suffered no diminution, but on the contrary were established by royal authority, and continued after they had ceased to exist elsewhere. But even with us his government has been extinct for many years, and his name and his offices are nearly forgotten. In some great families, and also sometimes at court, this officer was called See Introduction. 2 Polydore Vergil de Rerum Invent. lib. v. cap 2. |