to be driven through the one and round the other, without beating either of them down; and their fall might easily be effected, because they were not fastened to the table: this is called the French Game; and much resembled the Italian method of playing, known in England by the name of Trucks, which also had its king at one end of the table. Billiards are first mentioned, as an unlawful game, towards the close of the last reign, when billiard-tables were forbidden to be kept in publichouses, under the penalty of ten pounds for every offence. k XVII. Mississipi is played upon a table, made in the form of a parallelogram. It much resembles a modern billiard-table, excepting that, instead of pockets, it has a recess at one end, into which the balls may fall; and this recess is faced with a thin board, equal in height to the ledge that surrounds the table, and in it are fifteen perforations, or small arches, every one of them surmounted by a number from one to fifteen inclusive, the highest being placed in the middle, and the others intermixed on either side. The players have four or six balls,' at pleasure, which they cast alternately, one at a time, against the sides of the table, whence they acquire an angular direction, and, rolling to the arches, strike against the intervening parts, or pass by them. In the first instance the cast is of no use; in the second, the value of the numbers affixed to the arches through which they run is placed to the score of the player; and he who first attains one hundred and twenty wins the game. This pastime is included in the statute above mentioned relating to billiards, and the same penalty is imposed upon the publican who keeps a table in his house for the purpose of playing. XVIII. The Rocks of Scilly. This diversion requires a table oblong in its form, and curved at the top, which is more elevated than the bottom. There is a hollow trunk affixed to one side, which runs nearly the whole length of the table, and is open at both ends. The balls are put in singly at the bottom, and driven through it by the means of a round battoon of wood. When a ball quits the trunk it is impelled by its own gravity towards the lower part of the table, where there are * Act of Parliament 30 George II. 1 They are usually made of ivory, and distinguished from each other by their colour, some being red, and some white. arches similar to those upon the mississipi-table, and numbered in like manner; but it is frequently interrupted in its descent by wires inserted at different distances upon the table, which alter its direction, and often throw it entirely out of the proper track. The game is reckoned in the same manner as at mississipi, and the cast is void if the ball does not enter any of the holes. XIX. Shove-groat, named also Slyp-groat, and Slide-thrift, are sports occasionally mentioned by the writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and probably were analogous to the modern pastime called Justice Jervis," which is confined to common pot-houses, and only practised by such as frequent the tap-rooms. It requires a parallelogram to be made with chalk, or by lines cut upon the middle of a table, about twelve or fourteen inches in breadth, and three or four feet in length; which is divided, latitudinally, into nine equal partitions, in every one of which is placed a figure, in regular succession from one to nine. Each of the players provides himself with a smooth halfpenny, which he places upon the edge of the table, and, striking it with the palm of his hand, drives it towards the marks; and according to the value of the figure affixed to the partition wherein the halfpenny rests, his game is reckoned; which generally is stated at thirty-one, and must be made precisely; if it be exceeded, the player goes again for nine, which must also be brought exactly, or the turn is forfeited; and if the halfpenny rests upon any of the marks that separate the partitions, or overpasses the external boundaries, the go is void." Some add a tenth partition, with the number ten, to the marks above mentioned; and then they play with four halfpence, which are considered as equivalent to so many cards at cribbage; and the game is counted, in like manner, by fifteens, sequences, pairs, and pairiais, according to the numbers appertaining to the partitions occupied by the halfpence. XX. Swinging is a childish sport, in which the performer is seated upon the middle of a long rope, fastened at both ends, a little distance from each other, and the higher above his head the better. The rope m Or Jarvis, for I know not the right orthography. It is also to be observed, that the players toss up to determine who shall go first, which is certainly a great advantage. we call the Swing, but formerly it was known by the name of Meritot, or Merry-trotter. This simple pastime was not confined to the children, at least in the last century, but practised by grown persons of both sexes, and especially by the rustics. Hence Gay; On two near elms the slacken'd cord I hung, Now high, now low, my Blouzalinda swung. It was also adopted at the watering-places by people of fashion, and the innovation is justly ridiculed in the Spectator.P Of late years a machine has been introduced to answer the purpose of the swing. It consists of an axletree, with four or six double arms inserted into it, like the spokes of a large water-wheel; every pair of arms is connected at the extremities by a round rod of iron, of considerable thickness, and upon it a box is suspended, resembling the body of a post-chaise, which turns about and passes readily between the two spokes, in such a manner as to continue upright, whatever may be the position of its supporters. These carriages usually contain two or three persons each; and being filled with passengers, if I may be allowed the term, the machine is put into action, when they are successively elevated and depressed by the rotatory motion. This ridiculous method of riding was in vogue for the space of two summers, and the places where the machines were erected frequented by persons of both sexes, and by some whose situation in life, one might have thought, would have prevented their appearance in such a mixed, and, generally speaking, vulgar company; but the charms of novelty may be pleaded in excuse for many inadvertencies. The Grecian boys had a game, which I have seen played by the youth of our own country: it was performed by the means of a rope • The first occurs in Chaucer; the second in the vocabulary called Orbis Sensualium Pictus, as translated by Hoole, chap. cxxxvi. In Latin it is called Oscillum, and thus described by an old author: Oscillum est genus ludi, &c. In English to this effect; Oscillum is a sort of game played with a rope depending from a beam, in which a boy, or a girl, being seated, is driven backwards and forwards. Speight's Glossary to Ghaucer. P Vol. viii. No 496; and again No 492 in the same volume. ¶ And was exhibited at several places in the neighbourhood of London. • Called in Greek Exxvorivda. Eustatius ad Iliad. G. passed through a hole made in a beam, and either end held by a boy, who pulls the rope, in his turn, with all his strength; and, by this means, both of them are alternately elevated from the ground. XXI. To the foregoing we may add another pastime, called Tettertotter, well known, with us, by the younger part of the community: it consists in simply laying one piece of timber across another, so as to be equipoised; and, either end being occupied by a boy or a girl, they raise or depress themselves in turn. This sport was sometimes played by the rustic lads and lasses, as we find from Gay: Across the fallen oak the plank I laid, And myself pois'd against the tott'ring maid; XXII. Shuttle-cock is a boyish sport of long standing. We find it represented upon the thirty-third plate, the original of which occurs in a manuscript of the fourteenth century.' It appears to have been a fashionable pastime, among grown persons, in the reign of James the First, and is mentioned as such in an old comedy' of that time, wherein it is said, 'To play at shuttle-cock methinkes is the game now.' And among the anecdotes related of Prince Henry, son to James the First, is the following: His highness playing at shittle-cocke, with one farr taller than himself, and hittyng him by chance with the shittle-cock upon the forehead, This is,' quoth he, the encounter of David with Goliath.'" In the possession of F. Douce, Esq. The Two Maids of Moreclacke, printed A. D. 1609. "MS. Harl. marked 6391. See not , p. 265. CHA P. II. Sedentary Games.-Dice-playing.-Its Prevalency and bad Effects.-An Anecdote relating to false Dice.-Chess, the Origin unknown.-The Chess-board.-The Pieces, and their Form.-The various Games of Chess.-The Philosopher's Game.Draughts, French and Polish.-Merelles, or Nine Mens Morris.-Fox and Geese.Solitary Game.-Backgammon, anciently called Tables.-The different Manners of Playing at Tables.-Domino.-Cards, when invented.-Card-playing much practised-forbidden.-A specimen of ancient Cards.-The Games formerly played with Cards.-The Game of Goose-and of the Snake.-Even and Odd.-Cross and Pile. I. THIS chapter is appropriated to sedentary games, and in treating upon most of them I am under the necessity of confining myself to very narrow limits. To attempt a minute investigation of their properties, to explain the different manners in which they have been played, or to produce all the regulations by which they have been governed, is absolutely incompatible with my present design. Instead, therefore, of following the various writers upon these subjects, whose opinions are rarely in unison, through the multiplicity of their arguments, I shall content myself by selecting such of them as appear to be most cogent, and be exceedingly brief in my own observations. II. Dice. There is not, I believe, any species of amusement more ancient than dice-playing; none has been more universally prevalent, and, generally speaking, none is more pernicious in its consequences. We have already seen that the ancient Germans, even in their state of a * It is the earliest, or at least one of the most early pastimes in use among the Grecians. Dice are said to have been invented, together with chess, by Palamedes, the son of Nauplius, king of Eubœa. Palamed. de Alea, lib. i. cap. 18. Others, agreeing to the time of the invention of dice, attribute it to a Greek soldier named Alea; and therefore say that the game was so denominated. Isidorus Originum, lib. xviii. cap. 60. But Herodotus, lib. i. attributes both dice and chess to the Lydians, a people of Asia; in which part of the world, it is most probable, they originated at some very remote but un. certain period. |