A pack of satirical cards, belonging to W. H. Diamond, Esq., Frith

street, Soho square, appear to have been executed about the same time.

Each subject has an explanatory couplet at the bottom, and the value

of each in the game is indicated by a small card engraved at the top,

to the left. As in the other pack, there is a red stamp on the Ace of

Spades. All the subjects are coarsely engraved, though some of them

display points of character very much in the style of Hogarth. In the

Three of Spades there is a billiard-table, at which a gentleman is

playing with a curved cue. The inscription is:

"Think not a losing gamester will be fair,

"Who at y^e best ne're playd upon the square."

In the Ten of Spades, a Moorfields quack is seen pointing to his sign,

with the inscription:

"To famed Moorfields I dayly do repair;

Kill worms, cure itch, and make y^e ladies fair."

In the Ace of Diamonds, a lady is seen showing her palm to a

fortune-teller, with the inscription:

"How can you hope this Gipsey drabb should know

The Fates decrees, and who was made for you."

In the Four of Diamonds, a lady is seen exchanging some of her clothes

for china ware, with an itinerant dealer. The inscription is:

"Your pockets, madam, surely are wondrous bare,

To sell your very clothes for china ware."

In the Ten of Diamonds, the interior of a shop is shown, with articles

of plate on the shelves. A woman is standing behind the counter, on

which are a box and dice, and in front are a lady and gentleman who

seem to have just thrown. The inscription is:

"At Epsom oft these rafflings I have seen,

But assignation's what they chiefly mean."

In England, books containing instructions for playing at cards appear

to have been first published in the reign of Charles II, to the

great benefit, most assuredly, of all adepts who had acquired their

knowledge by practice; for in card-playing, as well as in chemistry,

the experienced manipulators have a great advantage over the merely

book-learned when matters are brought to the test. The real science

of play is not to be acquired by the study of books, but by frequent

encounters across the table, with men, whose keenness ensures attention

to the rules of the game. But, even with the knowledge thus acquired,

the proficient will gain but little, unless he also be skilled in the

discrimination of flats and sharps.

In 1670, an edition of a book entitled 'Wits Interpreter,' was enlarged

with directions for playing the "Courtly Games of L'Hombre, Piquit,

Gleek, and Cribbage;" and in 1674 appeared Cotton's "Compleat Gamester;

or, Instructions how to play at all manner of usual and most Gentile

games, either on Cards, Dice, Billiards, Trucks, Bowls, or Chess." This

book was several times reprinted; and in an edition published in 1709,

the following are enumerated as the principal games at cards: Piquet;

Gleek; l'Ombre, a Spanish game; Cribbage; All-Fours; English Ruff and

Honours, alias Slam; Whist; French Ruff; Five Cards; a game called

Costly Colours; Bone-Ace; Put, and the High Game; Wit and Reason, a

game so called; a Pastime called the Art of Memory; a game called

Plain-Dealing; a game called Queen Nazareen; Lanterloo; a game called

Penneech; Bankafalet; Beast;[187] and Basset.[188]

The game of Whist, or Whisk, as it seems to have been usually called,

is unquestionably of English origin, and appears to have been popular

long before it became fashionable.

"Let India vaunt her children's vast address,

Who first contriv'd the warlike sport of Chess;

Let nice Piquette the boast of France remain,

And studious Ombre be the pride of Spain;

Invention's praise shall England yield to none,

While she can call delightful Whist her own.

But to what name we this distinction owe,

Is not so easy for us now to know:

The British annals all are silent here,

Nor deign one friendly hint our doubts to clear:

Ev'n HUME himself, whose philosophic mind

Could not but love a pastime so refin'd:

Ungrateful HUME, who, till his dying day,

Continued still his fav'rite game to play;[189]

Tho' many a curious fact his page supplies,

To this important point a place denies."[190]

Barrington's observations on the introduction of the game into

respectable company, are as follows: "Quadrille (a species of Ombre)

obtained a vogue upon the disuse of the latter, which it maintained

till Whisk was introduced, which now [1787] prevails not only in

England, but in most of the civilized parts of Europe.[191] If it

may not possibly be supposed that the game of Trumps (which I have

before taken notice of, as alluded to in one of the old plays contained

in Dodsley's Collection) is Whisk, I rather conceive that the first

mention of that game is to be found in Farquhar's 'Beaux Stratagem,'

which was written in the very beginning of the present century.[192]

It was then played with what were called _Swabbers_,[193] which were

possibly so termed, because they who had certain cards in their hand

were entitled to take up a share of the stake, independent of the

general event of the game. The fortunate, therefore, clearing the

board of this extraordinary stake, might be compared by seamen to the

_Swabbers_ (or cleaners of the deck), in which sense the term is still

used. Be this as it may, Whisk seems never to have been played on

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:

before that time it was confined chiefly to the servants' hall with

All-Fours and Put."

From Mr. Barrington's own references it would appear to have been a

favorite game with country squires about 1707, the date of the Beaux

Stratagem; and occasionally indulged in by clergymen about 1728,

the date of Swift's Essay on the Fates of Clergymen. Their example,

however, seems to have been unable to retrieve it from the character of

vulgarity, until it was seriously taken up by "a set of gentlemen," who

appear to have commenced their studies at the Crown coffee-house, in

Bedford row, just about the time that the Treatise on Whist, by "Edmond

Hoyle, Gent.," was first published by Thomas Osborne, at Gray's Inn.

The studies of such gentlemen, and the celebrity of their scientific

instructor, are thus commemorated in the prologue to the 'Humours of

Whist,' a dramatic satire quoted in the preceding page.

"Who will believe that man could e'er exist

Who spent near half an age in studying Whist;

Grew grey with Calculation,--Labour hard!--

As if Life's business centred in a card?

That such there is, let me to those appeal,

Who with such liberal hands reward his zeal.

Lo! Whist he makes a science; and our Peers

Deign to turn school-boys in their riper years;

Kings too, and Viceroys, proud to play the game,

Devour his learned page in quest of Fame:

While lordly sharpers dupe away at WHITE's,

And scarce leave one poor cull for common bites."

Though Mr. Barrington has not assigned any grounds for supposing that

Whist was the same game as that which was formerly called Trumps,

or Trump, it is not unlikely that he was induced to suggest the

possibility of their being the same from his having read, in 'The

Compleat Gamester,' that Whist differed but little from the game called

English Ruff and Honours, and in consequence of his having learnt,

from Cotgrave's Dictionary, that Ruff and Trump were the same.[194]

He says, in a note, that "In 1664, a book was published, entitled 'The

Compleat Gamester,' which takes no notice of Whisk." Though it be true

that "Whisk" is not named in the first edition of the book--printed in

1674, not 1664--yet the following passage, distinctly asserting that

Whist was then a common game in all parts of England, appears in the

second edition published in 1680.

"Ruff and Honours (by some called Slam), and Whist, are games so common

in England, in all parts thereof, that every child almost, of eight

years, hath a competent knowledge in that recreation; and therefore

I am more unwilling to speak anything more of them than this, that

there may be a great deal of art used in dealing and playing at these

games, which differ very little one from the other." In the 'Memoirs

of the most Famous Gamesters, from the reign of Charles II, to that of

Queen Anne,' 1714, a sharper named Johnson, who was hanged in 1690,

is mentioned as having excelled in the art of securing honours for

himself and partner when dealing at Whist; and in the works of Taylor

the Water-poet, printed in 1630, Whisk is mentioned among the games at

which the prodigal squanders his money:

"The prodigalls estate like to a flux,

The Mercer, Draper, and the Silkman sucks:

The Taylor, Millainer, Dogs, Drabs, and Dice,

Trey-trip, or Passage, or the Most-at-thrice.

At Irish, Tick-tacke, Doublets, Draughts, or Chesse,

He flings his money free with carelessnesse:

At Novum, Mumchance, Mischance (chuse ye which),

At One-and-thirty, or at Poor-and-rich,

Ruffe, Slam, Trump, Noddy, Whisk, Hole, Sant, New-cut.

Unto the keeping of four Knaves he'll put

His whole estate; at Loadum or at Gleeke,

At Tickle-me quickly, he's a merry Greek;

At Primifisto, Post-and payre, Primero,

Maw, Whip-her-ginny, he's a lib'ral hero;

At My-sow pigg'd: but (reader, never doubt ye)

He's skill'd in all games, except Looke about ye.

Bowles, Shove-groat, Tennis, no game comes amiss,

His purse a nurse for anybody is;

Caroches, Coaches, and Tobacconists,

All sorts of people freely from his fists

His vaine expenses daily sucke and soake,

And he himself suckes only drinke and smoake.

And thus the Prodigall, himselfe alone,

Gives sucke to thousands, and himself sucks none."[195]

In an edition of 'The Compleat Gamester' of 1709, it is said that the

game of Whist is so called from the silence that is to be observed in

the play; and Dr. Johnson, from the manner in which he explains the

term, seems to have favoured this opinion: "Whist, a game at cards,

requiring close attention and silence."[196] The name, however, appears

more likely to have been a corruption of the older one of Whisk. As the

game of Whisk and Swabbers was nearly the same as that of the still

older one of Ruff and Honours, it would seem that the two former terms

were merely the ludicrous synonyms of the latter,--introduced perhaps

about the time that Ruffs were going out of fashion, and when the

Honours represented by the coat cards were at a discount. The fact that

a game, so interesting in itself, should be so slighted, as it was,

by the higher orders, from the reign of Charles II to that of George

II, would seem to intimate that they were well aware of the ridicule

intended to be conveyed by its popular name of Whisk and Swabbers.

Looking at the conjunction of these terms, and considering their

primary meaning,[197] there can scarcely be a doubt that the former

was the original of Whist, the name under which the game subsequently

obtained an introduction to fashionable society, the Swabbers having

been deposed and the Honours restored.

In playing the game, Swabbers seem to have signified either the

Honours, or the points gained through holding them. At the older game

of Ruff and Honours, Ruff signified the Trump. It would appear that

when the Ruff was called a Whisk, in ridicule of the Ruff proper,

the Honours, or points gained through them were, "in concatenation

accordingly, designated Swabbers." In the present day, a Parisian

tailor calls, facetiously, the shirt-ruffle of a shopmate a damping

clout; and Philip Stubbes, in his 'Anatomie of Abuses,' 1583, thus

speaks of the ruffs of the gallants of his time: "Thei have great and

monsterous ruffes, made either of cambricke, holland, lawne, or els of

some other the finest cloth that can be got for money, whereof some be

a quarter of a yarde deepe, yea some more, very few lesse: so that thei

stande a full quarter of a yarde (and more) from their necks, hanging

over their shoulder points instead of a vaile. But if Æolus with his

blasts, or Neptune with his stormes, chaunce to hit upon the crasie

barke of their bruised ruffes, then they goeth flip-flap in the winde,

like ragges that flew abroode, lying upon their shoulders like the

dishcloute of a slut."

In the reign of Queen Anne, card-playing seems to have attained its

full tide in every part of civilized Europe. In England, in particular,

it was at once fashionable and popular; Ombre was the favorite game of

the ladies; and Piquet of the gentlemen, _par excellence_; clergymen

and country squires rubbed on at Whist; and the lower orders shuffled

away at All-Fours, Put, Cribbage, and Lanterloo. Subsequently some

of the games may have been more diligently studied, and the chances

more nicely calculated "on principles," but at no other time, either

before or since, was card-playing more prevalent amongst people of

all classes. The more pious indeed did their best to discourage the

general passion for play; but their dissuasions appear to have produced

but little effect; as indeed might be expected at a period when one

of the first statesmen of the time piqued himself rather on his skill

in gaming than on his political reputation, and when kind landlords,

of the Sir Roger de Coverley school, used to send a string of hog's

puddings and a pack of cards as a Christmas gift to every poor family

in the parish.[198] The character of the statesman alluded to--Lord

Godolphin, who died 1712,[199]--is thus sketched by Pope in his first

Moral Epistle:

"Who would not praise Patricio's high desert,

His hand unstained, his uncorrupted heart,

His comprehensive head! all interests weighed,

All Europe saved, yet Britain not betrayed?

He thanks you not; his pride is in piquette,

Newmarket fame, and judgement in a bet."

The following particulars relating to the manufacture of cards in

the reign of Queen Anne, are derived from a broadside entitled

"Considerations in relation to the Imposition on Cards, humbly

submitted to the Hon. House of Commons." It is without date, but

was certainly printed in the reign of Queen Anne, for the purpose of

being circulated among the members of the House of Commons on the

occasion of a proposal to lay a tax of sixpence per pack on cards.

"Nine parts in ten of the cards now made," it is stated, "are sold from

6_s._ to 24_s._ per gross; and even these at 6_s._ will by this duty

be subjected to £3 12_s._ tax. This, with submission, will destroy

nine parts in ten of the manufacture; for those cards which are now

bought for 3_d._ [per pack] can't then be afforded under 10_d._ or

1_s._ If any of your honours hope by this tax to suppress expensive

card-playing, it is answered that the common sort who play for innocent

diversion will only be hindered; the sharp gamesters who play for money

will not be discouraged; for those who play for many pounds a game will

not be hindered by 12_d._ a pack." There were then 40,000 reams of

Genoa white paper annually imported, chiefly for the purpose of making

cards. The business was in the hands of small masters, mostly poor,

of whom there were no less than a hundred, in and about London. Their

price to retailers, one sort of cards with another, was three halfpence

a pack, and their profit not above a halfpenny. Though cards were at

that period much smaller than they are at present, it is difficult to

conceive how they could be manufactured at so low a price.

As Pope's description of the game of Ombre in the Rape of the Lock

has been so frequently referred to by writers of all kinds,--whether

treating, like Richard Seymour, Esq., on Court Games, or, like Miss

Mitford, on Country Contentments,[200]--the omission of a reference to

it here might be considered a gross oversight; but as it is impossible

to go a pitch beyond the encomiums which have been bestowed on it, the

following remarks by an old author may be introduced as a variation:

"Mr. Pope, too, most certainly has his merit; yet the generality of

polite men heed him little more than a pack-horse upon the road; they

hear the jingle of his bells and pass on, without thinking of the

treasure he carries. I have frequently thought it odd, that in all the

good company I have kept, I never heard a line quoted from any part of

him, unless, now and then, an accidental one, from his beautiful and

accurate description of the game of Ombre."[201]

During the greater portion of the "Georgian Era" it would seem that

cards were as much played at by all classes as in the reign of Queen

Anne. In the early part of George I, Seymour published his 'Court

Gamester,' written, as the title-page states, for the use of the young

Princesses.[202] The only games of which Mr. Seymour treats are Ombre,

Piquet, and the Royal Game of Chess. His instructions for playing at

Ombre and Piquet are minute and precise, and have all the appearance of

having been adapted for royal capacities. At cards with princesses, he

may have been a master, in both senses of the word, and have played,

in any company, a "decent hand;" but at Chess, it is evident, he was a

mere novice,--"aut caprimulgus, aut fossor." Though, in the title-page,

the work is said to have been written for the use of the young

princesses, yet, in the preface, the author candidly acknowledges

that he had been induced to compile it for the fashionable world at

large, seeing that "gaming had become so much the fashion among the

beau-monde, that he who in company should appear ignorant of the games

in vogue would be reckoned low-bred and hardly fit for conversation."

In his explanation of the Spanish terms employed in the game of Ombre,

he is laudably precise; though when he renders the words, "_No se deve,

por Dios_," by "_It is not lost, by G--d_," he seems wishful rather

to give the spirit of the exclamation than the simple meaning of the

phrase, and to be emphatic even at the risk of appearing profane.

It is to be hoped that the princesses confined themselves to the

original Spanish, and that they were ignorant that it contained an

oath, supposing the objectionable English words to be merely added,

_elegantiæ causa_, by their polite teacher.

About the time that Seymour's 'Court Gamester' was first published, a

spirit of gambling seems to have pervaded all classes. Skill in the

games at cards most in vogue was a test of gentility; stock-jobbing,

or speculating for a rise or a fall in the public funds, had become a

regular trade; and even pious ministers, of high dissenting principles,

who looked on card-playing as sinful, scrambled as eagerly as the most

profane for shares of South Sea stock, and were blinded to the sense

of Christian duty by the dazzling hope of becoming suddenly rich. The

South Sea bubble, however, at length burst, and its promoters and their

dupes were appropriately caricatured in a pack of cards.[203] The South

Sea directors, instead of having thousands of pounds presented to them

by the shareholders, as a tribute to their speculative genius, were

summoned before a parliamentary committee to give an account of their

estates. Parliamentary committees have of late been employed for a

purpose widely different:

"... multi

Committunt eadem diverso crimina fato:

Ille crucem pretium sceleris tulit, hic _diadema_."

About 1737, Hoyle's 'Treatise on Whist' was first published. The work,

which seems to have been admirably adapted to the wants of society

at the time, was most favorably received; and in the course of the

succeeding ten or twelve years it ran through as many editions as

Lindley Murray's Grammar, in the same period, in modern times. It

proved a "lucky hit," both for the author and the publisher, who took

every precaution to secure their copyright: injunctions were held up

_in terrorem_ against pirates; and purchasers were informed that no

copies of the work were genuine unless they bore the signatures of

[Illustration: Signature of Edmond Hoyle.]

AND

[Illustration: Signature of Tho. Osborne]

The race of "Wits," who had previously exercised no small influence

on the world of fashion, was then on the decline; the beau-monde had

acquired the ascendency over Grub street; and gentlemen of rank and

fashion formed themselves into clubs, for the purposes of gaming and

social intercourse, from which thread-bare poets and hack pamphleteers

were excluded by the very terms of subscription, to say nothing of

the preliminary ordeal of the ballot. Those were the golden days of

Beau Nash; when George the Second was king; and his son, the Duke

of Cumberland, the patron of Broughton and Figg; when Cibber was

Poet-Laureate, and when Quin's brutality passed for wit; when the

Guards, the pride of the army, were such heroes as we see them in

Hogarth's March to Finchley; and when such statesmen as Bubb Doddington

had the entrée, by the back stairs, both at Leicester House and St.

James's. Even those who professed to correct the vices of the age seem

in some degree to have been infected with its spirit; Richardson, the

novelist, writing with the ostensible design of reforming "Rakes"

and retaining innocent young women in the paths of virtue, seems

often to indulge, more especially in Pamela and Clarissa Harlowe, in

describing scenes and suggesting circumstances which only could have

been conceived by a prurient imagination; and even John Wesley appears

to have encouraged his poor converted sinners to exaggerate their

petty vices, when speaking their experience at a love-feast, and to

dwell, with a peculiar kind of complacency, on their former state of

carnal wickedness as compared with their present state of spiritual

grace,--just as William Huntington, S.S., when in the fulness of

sanctity, dwelt on the memory of his former backslidings, and told all

the world, with ill-dissembled pride, that his first-born love-begotten

son was an exact copy of his father, both in humour and in person.

The reign of Beau Nash at Bath forms a "brilliant" era in the annals of

ostentatious frivolity. Under his auspices the City of the Sick[204]

became the favorite place of resort for the fashionable and the gay;

and in the pools where formerly lepers alone washed to cleanse them of

their sores, smooth-skinned ladies dabbled for pleasure, to the sound

of soft music, while gentlemen, enraptured, looked on.[205] The Beau

was admirably fitted, from his mercurial talents, to discharge the

peculiar duties of purveyor of pleasure to the fashionable society of

his age: he could administer flattery to a duchess while he pretended

to reprove her; and could persuade the little madams, of the Would-be

family, that they were honoured by his patronising condescension, at

the very time that he was endeavouring to make them appear ridiculous,

for the amusement of _real_ ladies. He displayed great tact in bringing

parties together who wished to be better acquainted, and denounced

scandal as the bane of fashionable society. He promoted play as a

recreation for the polite of both sexes; and encouraged dancing, not

only as a healthy exercise _per se_, but for the benefit of the rooms,

and for the sake of aiding the salutary operation of the waters. In his

dress he was "conspicuously queer," as was requisite in a Master of the

Ceremonies: he wore a large white hat,--cocked, be it observed,--the

buckle of his stock before instead of behind, and, even in the coldest

weather, his waistcoat unbuttoned, displaying the bosom of his shirt.

He drove six greys in his carriage, and when he went in state to the

rooms he was always attended by a numerous escort and a band of music,

the principal instruments of which were French horns,--"Sonorous metal,

blowing martial sounds." On his decease, which took place in 1761, the

corporation of Bath, grateful for the benefits conferred on their city

through his means, erected a marble statue of the Grand Master of the

Ceremonies in the Pump-room, between the busts of Newton and Pope; and

his good-natured friend, the Earl of Chesterfield, in an epigram, thus

did justice to his memory and the taste of the corporation:

"The Statue, placed these busts between,

Gives Satire all its strength;

Wisdom and Wit are little seen,

But Folly at full length."

The Earl of Chesterfield was a frequent visitor at Bath, where he

found many admirers of his wit, and many opportunities of exercising

it. Bath, indeed, was the very place for such a genius to shine in,

for in no other city in the kingdom were manners and morals, such

as his lordship's, more highly appreciated. His lordship was fond

of play too; and was partial to the company of Mr. Lookup, one of

the most noted professional gamesters of the day. Lookup, as well

as Colonel Charteris,--of notorious memory in the annals of gaming

and debauchery,--was from the north of the Tweed. He was born in

the neighbourhood of Jedburgh, and was bred an apothecary. On the

expiration of his apprenticeship, he proceeded southward, and obtained

a situation in the shop of an apothecary at Bath. On the death of his

master, he wooed and won the widow; and having thus obtained possession

of about five hundred pounds in ready money, he gave up the shop, and

devoted himself entirely to play, an itch for which he is said to have

brought with him from his native country. In Lookup's youth, and,

indeed, for many years afterwards, a fondness for card-playing was more

prevalent in Jedburgh than in any other town on the Scottish border.

Lookup, having determined to make gaming his business, devoted, like a

sensible man, his whole attention to it: he calculated the odds coolly,

played steadily, and, consequently, won considerably from those

fashionable amateurs whose confidence was not according to knowledge.

He was not only a proficient in all the usual games at cards, but also

played well at billiards. Lord Chesterfield used sometimes to amuse

himself at billiards with Lookup; and on one occasion had the laugh

turned against him by a _ruse_ of his antagonist, who, after winning a

game or two, asked his lordship how many he would give if he were to

put a patch over one eye. His lordship agreed to give him five;[206]

and Lookup having won several games in succession, his lordship threw

down his mace, declaring that he thought Lookup played as well with

one eye as with two. "I don't wonder at it, my lord," replied Lookup,

"for I have only seen out of one these ten years." The eye of which

Lookup had lost the use appeared as perfect as the other, even to a

near observer. With the money which he had at various times won of Lord

Chesterfield, chiefly at Piquet, he built some houses at Bath, which he

jocularly called "Chesterfield Row."

Lookup's gambling career, though successful, was not uniformly smooth;

and on one occasion he got himself very awkwardly entangled in the

meshes of the law. A gentleman, who had lost between three and four

hundred pounds to Lookup at Cribbage, being persuaded that there had

been "a pull" upon him, brought an action against Lookup for double

damages, according to the statute made and provided for the special

protection of the Tom-Noddy class of gamesters,--pitiful, whimpering,

greedy fools, who call upon the world to commiserate their losses,

though occasioned solely by their attempts on the purses of people

more knowing, though not a whit more knavish, than themselves. In

the course of some proceedings arising out of this action, Lookup,

through the blunder of his attorney, it is said, swore to the truth of

a circumstance which was subsequently proved to be false. Lookup was

hereupon prosecuted for perjury, and imprisoned; and only escaped the

pillory in consequence of a flaw in the indictment: the blunder of his

own attorney brings him into peril, and the blunder of his opponent's

sets him free; John a-Nokes's broken arm is a set-off against Tom

a-Styles's broken leg; each party is left to pay his own costs, and

thus the Law at least is satisfied. The oyster is swallowed, and the

scales of justice are evenly balanced with a shell in each.

Lookup, like his contemporary, Elwes the miser, who was also a great

card-player, frequently lost large sums by projects which he was

allured to engage in by the tempting bait of a large return for his

capital; a corrective occasionally administered by fortune to her

spoiled children when they leave their old successful course of retail

trickery, to embark as merchant adventurers on the sea of speculation.

But though fortune frowned on him when he gave up gaming as a regular

profession, to become the principal partner in a saltpetre manufactory

at Chelsea, she yet looked favorably on some of his other speculations

which were more in accordance with his old vocation: the shares which

he held in several privateers, in the French war from 1758 to 1763,

paid well; and he was highly successful as an adventurer in the slave

trade. He is said to have died "in harness,"--that is, with cards in

his hand,--when engaged in playing at his favorite game of Humbug, or

two-handed Whist. Foote--who is supposed to have represented him in

the character of Loader, in the farce of the Minor--is said to have

observed, on learning the circumstances of his death, that "Lookup

was humbugged out of the world at last." He died in November, 1770,

aged about seventy. His biographer thus sums up his character: "Upon

the whole, Mr. Lookup was as extraordinary a person as we have met

with for several years in the metropolis. He possessed a great share

of good sense, cultivated by a long acquaintance with the world; had

a smattering of learning, and a pretty retentive memory; was fluent

in words, and of a ready imagination. We cannot add, he was either

generous, grateful, or courageous. In his sentiments, his cunning, and

his fate, he nearly resembles the famous Colonel Charteris; a Scotchman

by birth, and a gamester by profession, he narrowly escaped condign

punishment for a crime that was not amongst the foremost of those of

which he probably might be accused."[207] Had he lived in the railway

era, he would, most assuredly, have been either a king or a stag royal:

"The craven rook and pert jackdaw,

Although no birds of moral kind,

Yet serve, when dead, and stuffed with straw,

To show us which way points the wind."

The reign of George II is a historical picture of "great breadth,"

abounding in strongly marked characters, strikingly contrasted;

but chiefly undignified, and generally low. The Carnal man is a

ruffian rioting in Gin Lane; whilst the Spiritual is typified by a

sinister-looking personage, with lank hair, cadaverous visage, and

a cock-eye, preaching Free Grace from a tub to a miscellaneous

company at Mile-end Green,--the indifference of the unregenerate being

indicated by a prize fight in the background. Here a poor rogue is

going, drunk, to Tyburn, for having robbed a thief-taker's journeyman

of a silver watch, a steel chain, and a tobacco-stopper,--worth

altogether forty shillings and threepence, the value required by law

to entitle the thief-taker to his price of blood; and there a wealthy

soap-boiler, who has made a fortune by cheating the excise, is going

in state to Guildhall as Lord Mayor of London. Here a young rake is

making violent love to his mother's maid, who has been induced to

encourage his attentions from her reading Pamela; and there his aunt,

a maiden lady of fifty-two, but having in her own right three thousand

a year, is complacently listening to the matrimonial proposals of a

young New-light preacher. Here is Colley Cibber sipping his wine at the

table of "my lord;" and there sits Samuel Johnson, behind the screen

in Cave's back shop, eagerly devouring the plate of meat which the

considerate bookseller has sent him from his own table. Here are Johnny

Cope and the dragoons riding a race from Preston Pans; and there sits

the young Chevalier, unkempt and bare-legged, smoking a short pipe in

a Highland hut. Here hangs the sign of the Duke of Cumberland's head;

and there, grinning down on it from the elevation of Temple Bar, are

the heads of the decapitated rebels. Here Ranelagh is seen shut up on

account of the earthquake at Lisbon;[208] and there a batch of gambling

senators are hurrying down to the House from the club at WHITE'S, to

give their votes in favour of a bill to repress gaming.

The several acts passed against gaming, in the reign of George II,

appear to have had but little effect in restraining the practice,

either at the time, or in any subsequent reign; for though occasionally

a solitary loose fish might become entangled in their meshes, they

never interrupted the onward course of the great shoal.

The shameless inconsistency of many of the noble lords and honorable

gentlemen who were parties to the enactment of those laws, is cleverly

shown up in an ironical pamphlet entitled, "A Letter to the Club at

White's. In which are set forth the great Expediency of repealing the

Laws now in force against Excessive Gaming, and the many Advantages

that would arise to this Nation from it. By Erasmus Mumford, Esq.,"

1750. The following passages appear most worthy of transcription, both

as showing the composition of a celebrated club about a hundred years

ago, and as containing the pith of the writer's argument.

"The pertinency of my address to you, my Lords and Gentlemen, on

this occasion, must be evident to every one that knows anything of

your history; as that you are a Club of about Five Hundred, much the

greatest part of you Peers and Members of Parliament, who meet every

day at a celebrated Chocolate House, near St. James's, with much

greater assiduity than you meet in the Court of Requests; and there,

all party quarrels being laid aside, all State questions dropped, Whigs

and Tories, Placemen and Patriots, Courtiers and Country Gentlemen,

you all agree for the good of the Public, in the salutary measures

of excessive gaming. But then as this is against laws of your own

making, though now become old-fashioned, musty things, it would save

appearances a little to the world methinks, that they should be

repealed in the same solemn form in which they were enacted. And as

you are, by yourselves and your relations, a great majority of the

Legislature, and have no party bias whatsoever on this article, so it

would certainly be as easy for you, as it is, in my opinion, incumbent

on you, to accomplish such a repeal.... For, whatever we mean in our

hearts, the forms of government should be carefully preserved; and

though gaming is of the highest advantage to this nation, as I shall

presently make appear, yet to practise it in defiance of all order,

in the very sight, as it were, of the Government, and against the

spirit and letter of the laws which you made yourselves, is entirely

inconsistent with the character of Patriots, Nobles, Senators, Great

Men, or whatever name of public honour you would chuse to call

yourselves by.

"Besides, we have some odd queer maxims in our heads, that the Law is

the same for the King and the Cobler, &c., nor is there in any Act of

Parliament that has come to my knowledge, any exception of this same

house called White's and the good company who frequent it. If you have

any act against Gaming with any such exception in it, be so good as to

produce it; for I believe verily that, besides yourselves, there is not

a man in the kingdom who knows any thing of it. I have read the last

Act over and over, and I protest that I can't see any such thing; and

yet I don't know how to persuade myself that so many noble Lords and so

many of the House of Commons, of all parties and denominations, should

every day meet together in open contradiction to such an Act, without a

saving clause to shelter themselves under.--

"But though it does no other harm at present, yet still it continues

to be an act of the Lords and Commons of the kingdom, (of which you,

to your eternal praise, are a great part,) and which has had the Royal

assent. And whilst it does so continue, it not only hinders the rest

of the kingdom, who are so silly as to mind Acts of Parliament, from

Gaming, but it prevents a scheme, which I have had in my head for some

time, from taking place; which is, that you should use your utmost

endeavours with his Majesty, that he would be pleased, in consideration

of the great good of his people, to give neither place nor pension to

any Peer, howsoever deserving in all other respects, who is not of

your body; and that a Bill should be brought in to render every one

incapable of sitting as a member in either House of Parliament, how

sound soever his political principles may be, who is not likewise a

member of the Gaming Club at WHITE's. This, I apprehend, would be an

effectual way of introducing this wholesome innocent diversion into

every house of Fashion and Politeness in the kingdom, and make your

illustrious body more in vogue, if that can be, than it is at present.--

"But this scheme, which I apprehend to be of such great utility, can

never be executed whilst these Acts of Parliament remain unrepealed....

There is one difficulty indeed which I am aware of, which, as I don't

know how to get over very well myself, I must submit to your greater

wisdom; and that is, getting the king and his chief ministers to

consent. For as to the former, though he allows of the practice in his

palace once a year, from mere antient custom,[209] yet it is well known

that he discourages it very much; and the moment he heard of a table at

his house at Kensington, sent immediate orders to forbid it. And as to

the Secretaries of State, though they have this diversion once a year

or so at their houses, for the entertainment of the Foreign Ministers,

yet they never play themselves, nor show any other countenance to it,

directly nor indirectly."[210]

In the political pamphlets which appeared in opposition to the ministry

in the latter part of the reign of George II, the club at White's is

frequently alluded to; and in 'A Political and Satirical History of the

years 1756, 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760, in a series of one hundred and

four Humourous and Entertaining Prints,'[211] the gaming propensities

of Lord Anson, the circumnavigator, who was at the same time a member

of the club and of the government, are keenly satirised. In Plate 7

he is represented as a Sea Lion, with the body of a man and the tail

of a fish; in one hand he holds a dice-box, and in the other a card;

and on the wall are two pictures, the one showing an E.O. table, and

the other a table covered with money, with the inscription "_Blacks_

and WHITES." In another print he figures as the Knave of Diamonds,

with the inscription at the top, "_Hic niger est_;" and at the bottom,

"ACAPULCA." In the Key prefixed to the work the person represented

is thus denounced: "This caricatura's propensity to gaming tells us

at once how valuable he must be to a shipwrecked state, and that he

deserves (like a drunken pilot in a storm) to be thrown overboard, to

make room for one of clearer brains and more integrity." The three

other Knaves are: SPADES, inscribed "Monsr. Dupe;" and in the Key it is

said that, by the flower-de-luces, seen on the ground, is expressed,

"how much this caricatura was connected with our enemies, and was even

a Dupe to them against the interests of his country." HEARTS, with a

fox's head, and inscribed "Monsr. Surecard:" in the Key it is said

that this character "infers, by the sharpness of the nose, that craft

and subtilty which is natural to creatures of a similar kind, known by

the name of FOXES, and is here pointed out as a Knave." CLUBS, with a

broken yoke in his hand, and inscribed "Null Marriage:" the Key says,

"this caricatura was esteemed the most atrocious Knave in the pack, and

the worst of the black sort."

Another plate in the same series of caricatures displays the gamester's

coat of arms. The shield is charged with cards, dice, and dice-boxes,

and is surrounded by a chain, from which hangs a label inscribed

"CLARET." Supporters, two Knaves. Crest, a hand holding a dice-box.

Motto, "_Cog it_ AMOR NUMMI." In Plate 90, of which a copy is here

given, the principal performers figuring on the political stage in

1759 are represented as coat cards.[212] In the suit of HEARTS, the

King, Optimus, is George II; Queen, Britannia; Knave, Pitt. DIAMONDS,

King, the King of Prussia; Queen, the City of London; Knave, Prince

Ferdinand. SPADES, King, the King of Poland; Queen, the Queen of

Hungary; Knave, Holland. CLUBS, King, the King of France; Queen,

Gallia; Knave, Marshal Broglie. In the Key it is said that "the labels

and characters here represented are sufficient to explain the meaning

of the print, with the least application."

[Illustration: The Court Cards of 1759 or Hearts is Trump & has won the

Game.]

In a work relating to the authorship of Junius's Letters,[213] the

following account is given of the volume of caricatures in question.

It is not, however, correct in every point; for though it may be true

that the earlier plates were at first privately distributed, it is

certain that subsequently they were publicly sold. The first collection

of them, published in a volume, consisted only of the caricatures

for 1756-7; and appears to have been enlarged from time to time, by

the addition of such plates as had been published separately in the

preceding year. The edition of the first volume which I have consulted,

containing the plates from 1756 to 1760, is the fifth,--a proof that

latterly those caricatures were not privately distributed, whatever

they might have been at the commencement. Though Lord George Townshend

might have supplied the publisher with sketches or hints,[214] for

some of the subjects, and even have suggested the publication of the

series, it would be absurd to conclude that he was the designer of the

whole. There are only four subjects in the volume relating to Lord

George Sackville; and they are among the most worthless of the series,

both with respect to conception and design.

"Soon after the unfortunate misunderstanding at Minden, Lord George

Townshend (who had formerly been on friendly terms with Lord George

Sackville, particularly at the battle of Dettingen) joined with the

court party in publicly censuring his conduct. He had an ingenious

turn for drawing, and he even went so far as to caricature Lord George

flying from Minden, which, with many others, he privately circulated

among his friends. This book of caricatures, bearing date from 1756 to

1762, is extremely curious. As they were privately distributed, they

are, of course, seldom to be met with. I never saw but one complete

set, now in the possession of W. Little, Esq., of Richmond, who has

obligingly allowed me to copy the one in question, which is submitted

to the reader's inspection. We have Lord Orford's testimony to prove

that this book was the production of Lord George Townshend. Lord

Orford has described the first of the series, vol. ii, p. 68, 'A new

species of this manufacture now first appeared, invented by Lord George

Townshend; they were caricatures on cards. The original one, which had

amazing vent, was of Newcastle and Fox, looking at each other, and

crying with Peachum, in the Beggar's Opera, '_Brother, brother, we

are both in the wrong_.' On the Royal Exchange a paper was affixed,

advertising 'Three kingdoms to be let: inquire of Andrew Stone, broker,

in Lincoln's Inn Fields.'--The whole series forms a curious collection.

Those on Lord George Sackville were very severe."

The example set by the club at White's appears to have been much more

influential in promoting gaming than the denunciation of an Act of

Parliament to have been effective in repressing it: the letter of

the act was, indeed, killing, but the spirit of the legislators, as

displayed at White's, kept the game alive. New clubs of the same

kind,--on the principle of mutual insurance against informers,--were

established in the metropolis; and even in the provinces, country

gentlemen and tradesmen, becoming aware of the advantages of the

social compact, formed themselves into little clubs for the purpose of

indulging in a quiet game at cards or dice. Card-playing about the same

time, or a little later, was greatly promoted by the establishment of

assembly-rooms in country towns, where cock-fighting squires, after

attending the pit in the morning, might enjoy in the evening the more

refined amusements of dancing and cards.[215] The example set by the

higher classes was followed by the lower; and at a "merry night" in a

Cumberland village, some fifty years since, cards were as indispensable

as at an assize ball in the county town: with the exception of the

dress of the company and the arrangement of the rooms, the one

assembly, at the commencement at least, seems to have displayed all the

essentials of the other.

"Ay, lad, see a murry-neet we've had at Bleckell!

The sound o' the fiddle yet rings i' my ear;

Aw reet clipt and heeled were the lads and the lasses,

And monnie a clever lish hussey was there:

The bettermer sort sat snug i' the parlour;

I' th' pantry the sweethearters cuttered sae soft;

The dancers they kicked up a stour i' the kitchen;

At lanter the caird-lakers sat i' the loft."[216]

The passion for card-playing appears to have been extremely prevalent

in the earlier part of the reign of George III.[217] In almost every

town where there is an assembly-room, traditional anecdotes are handed

down of certain keen players keeping up the game for twenty-four

successive hours, till they were up to their knees in cards; and there

is scarcely a county in England that has not a story to tell of two or

three of its old landed gentry being ruined at cards by the Prince of

Wales. Even villages have their annals of gaming; of once substantial

farmers turning horse-coursers and riding headlong to ruin on a leather

plater; of others going more quietly off at cards, staking their

corn before it was housed; and of certain desperate cock-fighters

losing their whole substance at a single match, and then straightway

hanging themselves in their own barn. The love of card-playing, to the

great horror of the inordinately pious, seems even to have infected

ladies who were, in other respects, irreproachable:--good wives,

affectionate mothers, teaching their children the Catechism, going

regularly to church on Sundays, and taking the sacrament every month;

yet, alas! dearly loving a snug private party of four or five tables,

and immensely fond of Quadrille; and making but a poor atonement for

their transgression by never touching a card in Passion week, nor the

night before the Communion, nor even on the Wednesdays and Fridays

in Lent,--whenever they could avoid playing, "consistently with good

manners."[218]

A discourse against gaming, preached in 1793, by Dr. Thomas Rennell,

Master of the Temple, seems to have made much noise about the time, but

no converts. The most original passage in the work is the following,

wherein he asserts that the habit of card-playing renders the mind

insensible of Gospel evidence: in the present day, it may be observed

in passing, that a similar effect has been ascribed to the study of

Oriel-college logic. "The mind of one immersed in cards soon becomes

vacant, frivolous, and captious. The habits form a strange mixture of

mock gravity and pert flippancy. The understanding, by a perpetual

attention to a variety of unmeaning combinations, acquires a kind of

pride in this bastard employment of the faculty of thought, which is

so far from having any analogy to the real exercise of reason, that we

generally find a miserable eminence in it attainable by the dullest,

the most ignorant, and most contemptible of mankind. The gamester,

however, frequently mistakes this skill for general acuteness, and

from that conceit either totally rejects the Gospel evidence, or if

political or professional considerations render this indecent or

inexpedient, he harbours all that contemptible chicane, all that petty

sophistry, all that creeping evasion, with which a selfish heart, and a

contracted understanding, meets and embraces the prevailing heresy of

the times in which we live."[219]

The following appears to be levelled at an individual of no small

reputation in his day, and whose memory is likely to outlast Dr.

Rennell's. "What is it that converts those designed by Providence

to be the GUARDIANS and PROTECTORS into the BANE and CURSE of their

country? I will answer, the GAMING TABLE. The reverses here every

moment occurring unite beggared fortunes, mortified pride, callous

baseness, and inflamed appetites, directing their joint operations to

the destruction of that common mother which gave them birth. And here

I wish to be rightly understood--that with a frugal, active, dignified

poverty, the discharge of public duty is perfectly compatible. Such a

poverty was highly reverenced in the best ages of Pagan antiquity, as

the nurse of every great and useful exertion; but as distant as light

from darkness is such a poverty from that degraded, malevolent, abject

MENDICITY, the offspring of vice, the organ of faction, and the parent

of universal prostitution and venality."

Dr. Parr, in his copy of this discourse, wrote the following note,

which may serve as a tail-piece to the present chapter: "Dr. Rennell

is said, with his own hand, to have put a copy of this animated sermon

under the knocker of Mr. Fox's door in South street. I could wish the

story to be untrue. But the eloquent preacher did not employ his great

talents in a sermon against Sabbath-breaking, though his illustrious

patron, Mr. Pitt, had lately fought a duel with Mr. Tierney on

Wimbledon Common."

FOOTNOTES:

[109] Heller, Vom Ursprung der Spielkarten, in der Geschichte der

Holzschneidekunst, s. 307.

[110] "Interim vero jocis et ludo, minime concito, vacandum, ne sensus

cogitatione occupati concoctionem impediant. Careat jocus (quem

urbanum, facetum, modestum volo) dicacitate, scurrilitate, mordacitate.

Nolo mimos; non proterviam; non dicteria; non convicia, unde ira et

indignatio, et plerumque magna rixa oritur. Ludus sit talis, tessera,

saccho (ut nostra appellatione utur), _carthis variis imaginibus

pictis_. Absit inter ludendum omnis fraus et avaritia, qua illiberalior

et destestandus fit ludus, nec ullam affert ludenti voluptatem; cum

timor, ira, et immensa habendi cupiditas variis modis ludentes cruciet."

The first edition of Platina's treatise, De Honesta Voluptate, appeared

at Venice, 1475. The preceding extract is from the second edition,

printed in 1480.--Platina was born in 1421, and died in 1481.

[111] "Non mirum ergo ob hujus planctæ excellentem prærogativam si

in taxillis felicem jactum, non Jovem qui major fortuna putatur, sed

Venerem nuncupavit antiquitas. Unde Propertius,

Me quoque per talos Venerem quærente secundos,

Semper damnosi subsiliere Canes.

Canem vero et Caniculam damnosum jactum etiam siderum comparatione

appellaverunt. Sic Persius:

... Damnosa canicula quantum

Raderet.

Canis vero et canicula qualia sint sidera superius patuit. Sed forsitan

quidam riderent hujuscemodi ludorum inventionem, doctis quoque viris

tribui, nisi et ludum quem chartarum nominant vulgò et à sapientibus

fuisse excogitatum ratio dictaret; nam, ut regum, reginarum, equitum

peditumque potentiam præteream (quilibet enim dignitatis militiæque

differentiam novit), nonne cum ensium, hastarum, scyphorum, paniumque

agrestium vim consideramus, perspicacissimi ingenii inventorem esse

cognoscimus? Cum viribus ubi est opus, ut in hastis ensibusque videtur,

multitudo superat paucitatem: in esculentis vero poculentisque, ut

per panes vinumque figuratur, paucitas multitudinem vincit; constat

enim abstemios crapulosis edacibusque viris acrioris esse ingenii,

et in negotiis agendis fore superiores. Panes autem rusticos voco,

propter formam et colorem, croceo enim colore olim fuisse Plinius

narrat, (nam cuppæ scyphi sunt, ubi vinum,) et illi sunt panes, quos

imperite nummos credunt. Hastas, sic dixit vulgus, quoniam H aspiratio

et V convertantur, ut Hesper, Vesper. B autem et V sibi invicem

sedem præbere Græcus Latinusque testantur; ut Bastoni Hastoni vulgò

appelleutur, ita ut aliquando hastarum plerumque bipennium formam

gerant; utrumque enim militiæ; instrumentum est."--Galeottus Martius,

De Doctrina Promiscua, cap. xxxvi, pp. 477-8. 16mo, Lyons, 1552.

[112] Anderson's History of Commerce, vol. i, p. 483.--The passage

relating to cards, in the act referred to, was pointed out to the Hon.

D. Barrington by Mr. John Nichols. Gough, in his 'Observations on the

Invention of Cards,' in the Eighth Volume of Archæologia, says, that

Mr. Le Neve produced before the Society of Antiquaries a minute to

show that cards were manufactured in England before the 1st of Edward

IV; for then a person had his name from his ancestor having been a

card-maker. Mr. Gough observes that the ancestor of this person--Hugh

Cardmaker, prior of St. John the Baptist, at Bridgenorth--was

probably a maker of cards for dressing flax or wool. A _Karter_--a

wool-comber--occurs in the town-books of Nuremberg, in 1397.

[113] Fenn's Paston Letters, vol. ii, p. 333, edit. 1778.

[114] "The kynge came privily to the said castell [of Newbattle],

and entred within the chammer with a small company, where he founde

the quene playing at the CARDES."--Leland's Collectanea, vol. iii,

Appendix, p. 284. Cited by Warton, in his History of English Poetry,

who also observes that cards are mentioned in a statute of Henry VII,

in the year 1496.

[115] Private Life of James IV of Scotland, in Chambers's Edinburgh

Journal, Nos. 9 and 10, 1832.

[116] "Les cartes, comme tout ce qui tient aux arts, out une origine

Italienne: c'est à Venise ou à Florence que les Grecs réfugiés de

Constantinople les ont d'abord fait connaître."--Annuaire Historique

pour I'année 1837, p. 188.

[117] Ducange, Glossarium ad Scriptores mediæ; et infimæ Græcitatis.

Folio, 1688. Under the words Αζαρια and Χαρτια. Ταυλια is merely

a different mode of spelling ταβλια--_tabulæ_, tables, a kind of

backgammon board with its appendages.

[118] The following is Mons. Brunet's prefatory note to his brochure,

which was published at Paris, in 1842. "Les curieux, les amateurs

de livres recherchent avec empressement tout ce qui a rapport aux

cartes; c'est ce qui m'a porté à consacrer un instant de loisir à la

traduction de ce que je venais de lire, à cet égard, dans un ouvrage

allemand, vaste répertoire de I'érudition bibliographique la plus

étendue (Lehrbuch einer Literargeschichte der berühmtesten Volker des

Mittelalters, von J.G.T. Grasse, Dresden und Leipsig, Arnoldische

Buchhandlung, 1842, Band II, s. 879-85); j'ajoute quelques indications

nouvelles à cet aperçu, que je n'imprime d'ailleurs qu'à quelques

exemplaires."

[119] Geiler's second bell--his peal consists of seven--rings to this

tune. "Secunda nola est: ludcre alea dissimilibus. Tangit hæc nola

feminas nobiles et sacerdotes: feminas, inquam, quæ immiscent se

turbis virorum et cum eis ludunt, contra c. ii de judiciis, lib. vi;

sacerdotes et prelatos ludentes cum laicis,--laici sunt clericis oppido

infesti, unde scandalizantur; nobiles qui ludunt cum nebulonibus et

lenonibus, ut in speculo nostro vulgari habes."--Speculum Fatuorum,

auctore Joanne Geiler de Keisersberg, concionatore Argentorense, sect.

LXXVII. Lusorum turba (_Spiel Narre_). Edit. Strasburg, 1511. It may

here be observed that Geiler's bells are intended by himself for the

caps of "_Spiel Narre_"--gambling fools.

[120] "Logica Memorativa: Chartiludium logice, sive dialectice memoria;

et novus Petri Hyspani textus emendatus. Cum jucundo pictasmatis

exercitio: eruditi viri F. Thomæ Murner, ordinis minorum, theologie

doctoris eximii." 4to, Strasburg, 1509 Leber says that the book

was first printed at Cracow in 1507; and that an edition of it, in

octavo, was printed at Paris in 1629. Murner was one of Luther's early

opponents; and one of the pamphlets which was published during their

controversy bears the following title: "Antwort dem Murner, uff scine

frag, ob der Künig von Engellant ein lügner sey, oder der götliche

doctor Mart. Luther, 1523." "An answer to Mumer on his question,

'Whether the King of England, or the reverend Doctor Martin Luther, is

a liar?'"

[121] "Chartiludium Institute summarie, doctore Thoma Murner memorante

et ludente." 4to, Strasburg, 1518. A copy of this book was sold at

Dr. Kloss's sale in 1835; and in the Catalogue, No. 2579, we are

informed that "this very rare and curious volume contains very many

wood-engravings, illustrative of four distinct games played by the

ancients with paper." Such games, we may presume, as are played at with

the Statutes at large. If Murner understood any game, he must have

learnt it subsequent to the publication of his Logical Card-play; and

if he were able to make it subservient to the explanation of anything

else, he must have improved himself greatly between 1508 and 1518.

[122] The Voyage of Columbus, in Poems by Samuel Rogers. Mr. Rogers's

note on the passage above quoted is: "Among those who went with

Columbus were many adventurers and gentlemen of the court. Primero was

then the game in fashion. See Vega, p. 2, lib. iii, c. 9."

[123] "Y porque decimos, que estos Españoles jugavan, y no hemos dicho

con què; es de saber, que despues que en la sangrienta battalla de

Manvila los quemaron los naypes, que llevavan con todo lo demàs que

alli perdieron, hacian naypes de pergamino, y los pintavan à las mil

maravillas; porque en qualquiera necessidad que se los ofrescia, se

animavan à hacer lo que avian menester. Y salian con ello, como si toda

su vida huvieran sido Maestros de aquel oficio; y porque no podian,

ò no querian hacer tantos, quantos eran menester, hicieron los que

bastavan, sirviendo por horas limitadas, andando por rueda entre los

jugadores; de donde (ò de otro paso semejante) podriamos decir, que

huviese nascido el refràn, que entre los Tahures se usa decir jugando:

Demonos priesa señores, que vienen por los naypes; y como los que

hacian los nuestros eran de cuero, duravan por peñas."--La Florida del

Inca [Garcilasso de la Vega], Parte Primera del Libro Quinto, capitulo

i, p. 198. Folio, Madrid, 1723.

[124] "Also I order and command that there be a care that all soldiers

have their room clean, and unpestered of chests, and other things,

without consenting in any case to have cards; and, if there be any,

to be taken away presently: neither permit them to the mariners; and

if the soldiers have any, let me be advertised."--Orders set down by

the Duke of Medina to be observed in the Voyage towards England, 1588;

reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany.

[125] Strutt, who quotes this passage in his Sports and Pastimes,

refers to Sir William Forrest, and Warton's History of English Poetry,

vol. iii, sect. iii, p. 311. Sir William Forrest's work, entitled 'The

Poesye of Princelye Practise,' was written towards the conclusion of

the reign of Henry VIII, and presented to Edward VI. The author allows

that a king, after dinner, may for a while "repose" himself at tables,

chess, or cards; but denies the latter to labouring people. Strutt says

that the work is in manuscript, in the Royal Library.

[126] Sir Robert Baker, in his Chronicle, states that in the eighteenth

year of Henry VIII a proclamation was made against all unlawful games,

so that in all places, tables, dice, cards, and bowls were taken and

burnt; but that this order continued not long, for young men, being

thus restrained, "fell to drinking, _stealing conies_, and other worse

misdemeanours."

[127] Furny--French, _fourni_--prepared, sorted, furnished, in complete

fashion, in full equipage. The card was a _coat_ card, in a certain

sense, though certainly not an honour.

[128] For some account of the author of this satire, the reader is

referred to Annals of the English Bible, by Christopher Anderson, vol.

i, pp. 63, 116, 136, 137. 8vo, 1845.

[129] Privy Purse Expenses of the Princess Mary, daughter of King Henry

VIII, afterwards Queen Mary. With a Memoir of the Princess, and Notes,

by Fred. Madden, Esq., F.S.A. 1831. From the following references in

the index, the reader may judge of Mary's partiality to the game.

"Cards, money delivered to the Princess to play at, p. 3, 10, 11, 14,

19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 35, 49, 50, 55, 57, 59, 67, 69, 73,

76, 81, _sæpe_, 101."

"Cards, money lent, to play at, 4, 13, 29, 30."

The sums delivered are mostly from 20_s._ to 40_s._ One entry is for so

small a sum as 2_s._ 2_d._, and another for 12_s._ 6_d._

[130] The charge of gaming is frequently alleged against the more

wealthy members of the Roman Catholic clergy by writers who were in

favour of the Reformation. "Item les grosses sommes de deniers qu'ils

jouent ordinairement, soit à la Prime, à la Chance, à la Paulme, n'ont

pas esté mises en compte. Qui est le bon Papiste qui pourroit se

contenter de voir son Prelat jouër et perdre pour une après disnee,

quatre, cinq, et six mil escus: pour une reste de Prime, avoir couché

cinq cens escus; pour un Aflac en perdre mille; que la pluspart des

episcopaux, jusques aux moindres chanoines, tiennent berland ouvert

à jouër à tous jeux prohibez et defendus, non seulement par le droit

canon, mais par les ordonnances du roi? L'exces y est bien tel, qu'on

monstrera qu'au simple chanoine, en achapt de cartes et de dez,

a employé durant une année cent, et six vingts escus, compris la

chandelle et le vin de ceux qui la mouchoyent."--Le Cabinet du Roy

de France, dans lequel il y a trois Perles precieuses d'inestimable

valeur, p. 65. 12mo, 1581. This virulent attack on the French clergy is

ascribed by Mons. Le Duchat to Nicolas Froumenteau; and by L'Isle de

Sales to Nicolas Barnaud.

[131] Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. ii, p. 500.

[132] The Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland were the principal

leaders of the Rebellion, or "Rising in the North," in 1569.

[133] His host was George Pyle, of Millheugh, on Ousenam water, about

four miles south-eastward from Jedburgh. The Earl of Westmoreland was

then staying with Kerr of Fairniherst.

[134] Hector, or Eckie of Harlaw, as he is called in the Border

Minstrelsy, delivered up the Earl of Northumberland, who had sought

refuge with him, to the Regent Murray.

[135] The name of the person against whom the bill was filed was Henry

Robson, probably of Falstone. His non-appearance seems to have caused

the dispute between the wardens, Sir J. Foster and Sir J. Carmichael,

which ended in a general combat between their followers.

[136] The above passage is quoted by Mr. T. Crofton Croker in a note

on the following lines in "A Kerry Pastoral," a poem published in

Concanen's Miscellanies, 1724, and reprinted by the Percy Society:

"Dingle and Derry sooner shall unite,

Shannon and Cashan both be drain'd outright;

And Kerry men forsake their cards and dice,

Dogs be pursued by Hares, and Cats by Mice,

Water begin to burn, and fire to wet,

Before I shall my college friends forget."

The favorite game of the Kerry men is said to have been

"One-and-thirty."

[137] Pascasius Justus, in his work entitled Alea, first published in

1560, relates that though he frequently felt difficulty in obtaining

a supply of provisions when travelling in Spain, he never came to

a village, however poor, in which cards were not to be found. The

prevalence of card-playing in Spain about the middle of the sixteenth

century is further shown in a work entitled 'Satyra invectiva contra

los Tahures: en que se declaran los daños que al euerpo, y al alma y

la hazienda se siguen del juego de los naypes. Impressa en Sevilla,

en casa de Martin de Montesdoca, Año de M.D.LVII.' This work is

erroneously ascribed by Antonio, in his Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, to

Dominic Valtanas, or Baltanas, a Dominican friar, at whose instance the

edition referred to was printed. The author was Diego del Castillo,

who also wrote another work on the same subject, entitled 'Reprobacion

de los Juegos,' printed at Valladolid in 1528.--The author derives the

word _Tahur_, a gamester, from _Hurto_, theft, robbery, by transposing

the syllables, and changing _o_ into _a_:

"Tahur y ladron,

Una cosa son."

[138] "Il existe en Belgique plusieurs tableaux attribués à Jean Van

Eyck, qu'il est inutile de désigner, et qui par les costumes des

personnages dénotent une postériorité d'un grand nombre d'années.

Nantes en possède un, également attribué à ce maître, dont les

costumes sont ceux du règne de Charles VIII. Le sujet, sous le titre

de _Philippe-le-Bon consultant une tireuse de cartes_, en a été donné

dans le Magasin Pittoresque, année 1842, p. 324."--Quelques Mots sur la

Gravure au Millésime de 1418, p. 13. Philippe-le-Bon, Duke of Burgundy,

died in 1467; John Van Eyck in 1445.

[139] Though the ten is one of the cards employed in Marcolini's System

of Fortune-telling, it appears to have been generally omitted in the

packs of cards used by the Italian jugglers of the sixteenth century.

Leber, who says that he had examined "un grand nombre de tours de

cartes" described in the pamphlets of the most famous Italian jugglers

of the sixteenth century, yet refers only to two works on the subject

printed before 1600; one of them entitled 'Opera nuova non più vista,

nella quale potrai facilmente imparare molti giochi di mano. Composta

da Francesco di Milano, nominato in tutto il mondo il BAGATELLO.'

8vo, circa 1550. The other, 'Giochi di carte bellissimi e di memoria,

per Horatio Galasso.' Venetia, 1593. The author of the following

work, also referred to by Leber, appears to have been the original

"Pimperlimpimp," whose fame as a mountebank physician appears to have

been still fresh in the memory of the wits of the reign of Queen Anne:

'Li rari et mirabili Giuochi di Carte, da Alberto Francese, detto

PERLIMPIMPIM.' 8vo, Bologna, 1622.

[140] Life of Lord Bacon, p. 5. Lord Bacon relates the circumstances,

and a certain curious man's explanation of them, in his Sylva, Century

xth, p. 245. Edit. 1631.

[141] Cuffe assisted Colombani in the "editio princeps" of the Greek

text of the romance of Daphnis and Chloe, printed at Florence, 4to,

1598.

[142] "Observations on a picture by Zuccaro, from Lord Falkland's

collection, supposed to represent the game of Primero. By the Hon.

Daines Barrington." In the Archæologia, vol. viii. Mr. Barrington says,

"According to tradition in the family, it was painted by Zuccaro, and

represented Lord Burleigh playing at cards with three other persons,

who from their dress appear to be of distinction, each of them having

two rings on the same fingers of both their hands. The cards are marked

as at present, and differ from those of more modern times only by being

narrower and longer."

[143] Original Letters Illustrative of English History, with Notes by

Sir Henry Ellis. Second Series, vol. iii, p. 102.

[144] When the prohibition to play at cards or dice was first

introduced into apprentices' indentures I have not been able to learn.

It occurs, however, in the form of an indenture for an apprentice in 'A

Book of Presidents,' printed about 1565, and said to have been compiled

by Thos. Phaer, the translator of the seven first books of the Æneid.

In the title-page of his translation, 1558, Phaer describes himself as

"Solicitour to the King and Queenes Majesties."

[145] Those injunctions with respect to tavern-haunting and gaming are

embodied in the seventy-fifth canon of the Constitutions and Canons

Ecclesiastical, 1603.

[146] Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court in the Reigns

of Elizabeth and James I. Edited by Peter Cunningham, p. 176. Published

by the Shakspere Society.

A comedy intended to display the evil consequences of dicing and

card-playing was performed before the Emperor Maximilian II at Vienna,

on New Year's Day, 1570.--See the Collectanea of Johannes a Munster,

appended to the Alea of Pascasius Justus, edit. 1617.

[147] A Briefe Apologie of Poetrie, 1591. Quoted by Mr. P. Cunningham,

in his notes to Extracts from Accounts of the Revels, p. 223. In

dramatic representations of the game of cards we seem to have preceded

the French. In 1676, a comedy by Thomas Corneille, called 'Le

Triomphe des Dames,' was acted at Paris, in the theatre of the Hôtel

de Guegenaud, and the ballet of the Game of Piquet was one of the

interludes. "The four Knaves first made their appearance with their

halberts, in order to clear the way. The Kings came in succession,

giving their hands to the Queens, whose trains were borne up by four

Slaves, the first of whom represented Tennis, the second Billiards, the

third Dice, and the fourth Backgammon."--Historical Essays upon Paris.

Translated from the French of Mons. de Saintfoix, vol. i, p. 229. Edit.

1766.

[148] In an engraving of St. Peter denying Christ, after a painting by

Teniers, two soldiers are seen playing at cards in the hall of the high

priest; and, from the chalks on the table, the game appears to be _Put_.

[149] See Mr. Battle's Opinions on Whist, in Essays by Elia (Charles

Lamb).

[150] "The Anatomie of Abuses, containing A Discoverie, or breife

summarie of such notable vices and corruptions as now raigne in many

Christian countreyes of the world; but especially in the countrey of

AILGNA: [Anglia, England.] Together with the most fearefull examples

of God's judgements executed upon the wicked for the same, as well in

AILGNA of late, as in other places elsewhere. Made Dialogue-wise by

Philip Stubs," p. 112. Edit. printed by Richard Jones, 1583.--The Jew's

supposition that a thunder-storm was evidence of the divine displeasure

at his being about to indulge in a rasher of bacon, is nothing compared

with Master Stubbes's announcement of the wrath of heaven against those

who indulge in starched collars, fine linen shirts, and velvet breeches.

[151] A Discourse of the most illustrious Prince, Henry, late Prince

of Wales. Written in 1626 by Sir Charles Cornwallis. Reprinted in the

Harleian Miscellany.

[152] 'TOM TELL-TROATH: or a free Discourse touching the manners of

the time.' Reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany. The king's "forraygn

children" mentioned in this pamphlet are his daughter Elizabeth and

her family. Elizabeth was married to Frederick, Elector Palatine of

the Rhine, the competitor of the Emperor Ferdinand II for the crown of

Bohemia.

[153] "The King of Spain, or Gondemar, his ambassador."

[154] This engraving is preserved in a collection of Proclamations,

Ballads, &c., formed by the late Joseph Ames, and now in the library of

the Royal Society of Antiquaries. For the part played by Bethlem Gabor

in the affairs of Europe, between 1618 and 1628, the reader is referred

to Schiller's History of the Thirty-Years' War.

[155] "Five-Cards is an Irish game, and is as much played in that

kingdom, and that for considerable sums of money, as All-Fours is

played in Kent, but there is little analogy between them. There are

but two can play at it; and there are dealt five cards a piece.... The

five-fingers (_alias_ five of trumps) is the best card in the pack; the

ace of hearts is next to that, and the next is the ace of trumps."--The

Compleat Gamester, p. 90. Edit. 1709. First printed in 1674.

[156] Malone's Supplemental Observations on Shakspeare, cited by

Barrington. Dr. Moore, in his Views of Society and Manners in Italy,

mentions the card-playing at the opera at Florence. "I was never more

surprised," says he, "than when it was proposed to me to make one of a

whist party, in a box which seemed to have been made for the purpose,

with a little table in the middle. I hinted that it would be full as

convenient to have the party somewhere else; but I was told, good music

added greatly to the pleasure of a whist party; that it increased the

joy of good fortune, and soothed the affliction of bad."

[157] Numbers, xxvi, 55, 56; Proverbs, xvi, 33; Acts, i, 24-26.

[158] This appears to have been one of the chief grounds of objection

against cards and dice-play in Scotland, about a century later. Adam

Petrie, "the Scottish Chesterfield," adopts Balmford's conclusion:

"Lott is an ordinance whereby God often made known his mind, and

therefore ought not to be turned into a play; but Cards and Dice are

Lott; therefore they ought not to be turned into a play."--Rules of

Good Deportment, or of Good Breeding, printed at Edinburgh, 1710;

reprinted 1835.

[159] John Wesley, who sometimes "sought an answer" by lots of this

kind, was charged by the Rev. Augustus Toplady with "tossing up for his

creed, as porters or chairmen toss up for a halfpenny."--Letter to the

Rev. John Wesley, p. 7. Edit. 1770.

[160] Traité du Jeu, où l'on examine les principales questions de Droit

naturel et de Morale qui ont du rapport à cette matière. Par Jean

Barbeyrac, Professeur en Droit à Groningue. Seconde édition, revue et

augmentée. En trois tomes, 12mo. Amsterdam, 1737.

[161] Towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, Edward Darcy obtained a

patent for the manufacture of cards; and in the reign of James I the

importation of cards was prohibited, after 20th July, 1615, as the art

of making them was then brought to perfection in this country. As a

duty or tax of five shillings for every twelve dozen packs was levied

about that time by the authority of the Lord Treasurer, the statement

that such a tax was first levied in 1631, in the reign of Charles I,

is erroneous. This tax was one of the impositions complained of by the

Commons, in the reign of Charles I, "as arbitrary and illegal, being

levied without consent of Parliament." I am informed that the first act

of parliament imposing a tax on cards was passed in 1711, in the reign

of Queen Anne. The company of card-makers was first incorporated by

letters patent of Charles I in 1629.--See Singer's Researches, pp. 223,

224, 226, 365.

[162] Observations on the Antiquity of Card-playing, Archæologia, vol.

viii.

[163] Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 30. Mons. Leber had

in his collection some cards of Jean Volay's manufacture, which were

discovered in the boards of a book. Those cards are described in the

Catalogue of his books, tom. i, p. 241, Article xvii. There are also

cards manufactured by Jean Volay preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi,

at Paris.

[164] The Netherlands seem to have been famed at an early period

for the manufacture of cards. Albert Durer, in the journal which he

kept during his visit to those parts in 1521, notes that he bought

half a dozen packs for seven stivers: "Item hab umb ein halb dutzet

Niederländischer Karten geben 7 Stüber."--Albrecht Dürers Reisejournal,

in Von Murr's Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 7ter Theil, s. 96. From a

passage in Ascham's Toxophilos, 1545, quoted by Singer, it would appear

that the price of cards was then about twopence a pack: "He sayd a

payre of cards cost not past ii.d."

[165] The Four Knaves: a series of Satirical Tracts by Samuel Rowlands.

Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by E. F. Rimbault, Esq.

Reprinted for the Percy Society, 1843. For the loan of the cuts of the

Four Knaves the publisher is indebted to the Percy Society.

[166] On the word mandilions, Mr. Rimbault has the following note:

"Mandiglione, a jacket, a Mandilion?--Florio's _New World of Words_,

ed. 1611. Stubbes (_apud_ Strutt, _dress and habits_, vol. ii, p. 267)

says that it covered the whole body down to the thighs; and Randle

Holme describes it as 'a loose hanging garment, much like to our jacket

or jumps, but without sleeves, only having holes to put the arms

through; yet some were made with sleeves, but for no other use than to

hang on the back.'"

[167] In 1641, a pamphlet, in verse, against monopolizers and

patentees, appeared with the following title: 'A Pack of Patentees,

opened, shuffled, cut, dealt, and played.' The articles monopolized, or

for which patents had been obtained, were coals, soap, starch, leather,

salt, hops, gold wire, and horns.

"We'll shuffle up the pack; those that before

Did play at post and pair, must play no more."

[168] About the same period the game of cards seems to have furnished

titles to political pamphlets in other countries as well as in England.

The following is the title of a Dutch pamphlet, without date, but

apparently published about the time that the treaty of Westphalia

was concluded, 1648: 'Het herstelde Verkeer-bert verbetert in een

Lanterluy-spel.' From a passage in this pamphlet it appears that the

game of Lanterloo was the same as that called _Labate_--the French _La

Bête_, called "Beast," in Cotton's Compleat Gamester.

"_Vlaming._ Was spel is dat, Vader Jems? ick weet niet dat ick dat oyt

ghelesen heb, maer al die ghy genoemt hebt weet ick van.

"_Vader Jems._ O Bredder! het is dat spel dat veeltijts genoemt werdt

_Labate_, ofte om beter te seggen, _Lanterluy_."

[169] The two following are of later date but in the same strain. 'A

Murnival of Knaves: or Whiggism plainly display'd, and if not grown

shameless, burlesqu'd out of countenance, a Poem. 1683.' 'Win at first,

lose at last; or the Game of Cards which were shuffled by President

Bradshaw, cut by Col. Hewson the Cobler, and played by Oliver Cromwell

and Ireton till the Restoration of Charles II. 1707'--A Murnival, at

the game of Gleek, was all the four aces, kings, queens, or knaves.

[170] Poems on State Affairs, vol. iii, p. 25. Edit. 1704. "Tricon is,

at cards, that which we now call a gleek of Kings, Queens, Knaves,

&c., viz. three of them in one hand together."--Howell's Edition of

Cotgrave's French and English Dictionary, 1673. The term _Gleek_ is

probably derived from the German _Gleich_, signifying _like_; thus the

_Gleek_ was a certain number of cards of a _like_ kind. See further

illustrations of the word Gleek in Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic

Words.

[171] William Maxwell, in a catalogue of his works prefixed to

his 'Admirable Prophecies concerning the Church of Rome,' 4to,

1615, inserts the following as one already published: "Jamesanna,

or a Pythagorical play at cards, representing the excellency and

utility of Union and Concord, with the incommodities of Division

and Discorde, dedicated to the most hopefull Prince Charles." He

also mentions another work of his, of the same kind, unpublished,

written in imitation of More's Utopia. The author informs us, that

his grandfather, William Maxwell, son of the Laird of Kirkconnel, was

man-at-arms to the Most Christian King, and had the honour to serve the

mother of Mary Queen of Scots, and also Mary herself. The Maxwells are

still "Lairds of Kirkconnel," in Dumfries-shire. "Fair Kirkconnel Lea,"

mentioned in the old ballad, "I wish I were where Helen lies," is one

of the most beautiful spots in Britain.

[172] _Saunt_ he properly explains by _centum_, a hundred. _Cientos_

was a Spanish game, resembling Piquet.

[173] Englands Balme: or, Proposals by way of Grievance and Remedy,

humbly presented to his Highness and the Parliament; towards the

Regulation of the Law and better Administration of Justice. Tending

to the great Ease and Benefit of the good People of the Nation. By

William Sheppard, Esq. 12mo, 1657. The disregard of such _good_ men as

Mr. Sergeant Sheppard for the feelings and opinions of those whom they

were pleased to consider _bad_, and who formed a great majority of the

nation, paved the way for the restoration of Charles II.

[174] Though this pamphlet does not treat of the game, but is wholly

political, it cannot be doubted that Ombre was well known in England at

the time of its publication.

[175] Titus Britannicus: An Essay of History Royal, in the Life and

Reign of his late Sacred Majesty, Charles II, of ever blessed and

immortal memory. By Aurelian Cook, Gent. p. 296. Edit. 1685. Aurelian

is loud in his praises of his Titus for his _piety_ and _religion_.

According to his account, it would seem that in these respects the

"Martyr Charles" was nothing to "Old Rowley."

[176] In Heath's Chronicles, a right loyal publication, it is said that

Dr. Dorislaus,--the Parliamentary envoy, who was assassinated at the

Hague in May, 1649,--was accustomed to play at cards on Sundays at Sir

Henry Mildmay's, in Essex.--The Democracy, or pretended free State,

being the 2d part of the Brief Chronicle of the late intestine War, p.

435. Edit. 1662.

[177] Basset would seem to have been a common game at the court of

France about the same period. "The King (Louis XIV) now seldom or never

plays, but contents himself sometimes with looking on; but formerly

he hath been engaged, and has lost great sums. Mons. S. rookt him

of near a million of livres at Basset by putting false cards upon

him, but was imprisoned and banished for it some years."--Dr. Martin

Lister, Journey to Paris in the year 1698. In 1691, Louis XIV issued an

ordonnance prohibiting Faro, Basset, and other similar games. Whoever

should be convicted of playing at any of those games was to be fined a

thousand livres; and the person who allowed them to be played in his

house incurred a penalty of six thousand livres. Basset and Flush--il

Frusso--appear to have been known in Italy in the fifteenth century.

They are mentioned by Lorenzo de Medici in his Canti Carnascialeschi,

quoted by Singer, Researches, p. 26.

[178] The following is the title of a pack of geographical cards,

now lying before me, which appear to have been engraved in the reign

of Charles II. "The 52 Counties of England and Wales, geographically

described in a pack of Cards, whereunto is added the length, breadth,

and circuit of each county, the latitude, situation, and distance from

London of the principal Cities, Towns, and Rivers, with other Remarks;

as plaine and ready for the playing of all our English Games as any of

the common Cards." The heads of the Kings are shown at the top of the

maps of Hereford, Monmouth, Middlesex, and Yorkshire; of the Queens at

the top of the maps of Durham, Huntingdon, Radnor, and Worcestershire;

and of the Knaves at the top of the maps of Anglesey, Gloucester,

Leicester, and Rutland. If the deviser had any particular meaning in

his assignment of the coat cards, it is not easy to be discovered;

though it may be "shrewdly guessed at" as respects Monmouth and York.

[179] Lord Chesterfield is reported to have said to Anstis on one

occasion, when the latter was talking to him about heraldry, "You silly

man, you do not understand your own foolish business."

[180] Menestrier, Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive, tom. ii, p. 180.

[181] By card-makers the coat cards--King, Queen, and Knave--are

technically termed _têtes_, and the others _pips_.

[182] "Jeu d'Armoires, où tous les termes du Blazon sont expliqués et

rangés par ordre. Dedié à Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne. Se vend à

Paris, chez Vallet, dessinateur et graveur du Roy." The privilege to

the author, Sieur Gauthier, is dated 15th December, 1686.

[183] "The PUFF COLLUSIVE is the newest of any; for it acts in the

disguise of determined hostility. It is much used by bold booksellers

and enterprising poets."--The Critic, act i. The "puff collusive" was

not an invention of Sheridan's time, but merely the revival of an old

trick.

[184] The advertisement of those cards is preserved amongst Bagford's

collections, Harleian MSS. No. 5947.

[185] "Principally games of geography, history, and metamorphoses,

engraved by Della Bella, from plans furnished by the poet Desmarets,

to facilitate the studies of Louis XIV when a child. The idea is said

to have been suggested by Cardinal Mazarine."--A pack of military

cards, with instructions for playing the game, devised by the Sieur Des

Martins, and dedicated to "Son Altesse le Duc de Maine, Colonel-général

des Suisses," appeared in 1676. His Highness the Colonel-general, who

was the son of Louis XIV and Madame Montespan, was then six years old.

By the favour of F. R. Atkinson, Esq., of Manchester, an assiduous and

intelligent collector of curious books, I have had an opportunity of

examining two sets of French Historic Cards, without date, but probably

published about 1690. One of them is entitled "Cartes des Rois de

France. A Paris, chez F. Le Comte, rue St. Jaques, au Chifre du Roi."

The title of the other is, "Jeu des Reynes Renommées. A Paris, chez

Henri le Gras, Librairie, au 3^e pilier de la grande Salle du Palais."

Both sets appeared to have been designed exclusively for the purpose of

instruction, and not for play.

[186] About the same period Moxon, "glancing from heaven to earth,

from earth to heaven," published a pack of Astronomical Cards. In the

life of Beau Hewitt, in Lucas's Memoirs of the Lives, Intrigues, and

Comical Adventures of the most Famous Gamesters and Celebrated Sharpers

in the reigns of Charles II, James II, William III, and Queen Anne,

1714, the Beau is represented as having "most assiduously studied the

use of the geometrical playing-cards, set forth by Monsieur Des Cartes,

the famous French philosopher and mathematician; but that finding the

demonstrations of that great man to be founded on no certainty, he

resolved to try his luck at dice." It is said that Pascal's attention

was first directed to the calculation of chances in consequence of some

questions proposed to him by the Chevalier de Meré, a great gamester.

[187] In the text, Beast is said to be called by the French "_La Bett_"

[_La Bête_].

[188] The following appear to have been the principal games at cards

played in England before the reign of Charles II: the game of Trumps,

in the time of Edward VI; Primero, Maw, Lodam, Noddy, La Volta,

and Bankerout, mentioned by Sir John Harrington; and Gleek, Crimp,

Mount-Saint, Knave out of Doors, Post and Pair, and Ruff, mentioned

in Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays.--See Barrington and Bowle on

Card-playing, in the Archæologia, vol. viii.

[189] "Upon his return to Edinburgh, though he found himself weaker,

yet his cheerfulness never abated; and he continued to divert himself,

as usual, with correcting his own works for a new edition, with

reading books of amusement, with the conversation of his friends;

and sometimes, in the evening, with a party at his favorite game of

whist."--Dr. Adam Smith, Letter to Wm. Strahan.

[190] Whist, a poem in twelve Cantos. By Alexander Thomson, Esq., p.

21. Second Edition, 1792.

[191] Mr. Barrington seems to have obtained his information respecting

the succession of Whist to Quadrille from an authority whom he did not

like to acknowledge, namely, Sir Calculation Puzzle, in the Humours of

Whist. "Egad, you remind me, Sir John, of an observation I have made

too; which is, that as long as Quadrille and Ombre were the games in

vogue, we certainly were under French influence. Whereas since Whist

has come in fashion, you see our politics are improved upon us."--The

Humours of Whist. A Dramatic Satire, as acted every day at WHITE's, and

other Coffee-houses and Assemblies. 8vo, 1743.

[192] From the following passage in the 'Beaux Stratagem,' act ii,

scene 1, Whisk is mentioned by Mrs. Sullen in a disparaging manner, as

if it were fit only for rustics:

"_Dorinda._ You share in all the pleasures that the country affords.

_Mrs. Sullen._ Country pleasures! racks and torments! Dost think,

child, that my limbs are made for leaping of ditches, and clambering

over styles? or that my parents, wisely foreseeing my future

happiness in country pleasures, had early instructed me in the rural

accomplishments of drinking fat ale, playing at whisk, and smoking

tobacco with my husband?"

[193] "'The clergymen used to play at _Whisk_ and _Swabbers_.'--Swift."

[194] "Whist is a game not much differing from this" [English Ruff

and Honours].--Compleat Gamester, p. 86. Edit. 1709. "Triomphe, the

card-game called Ruffe, or Trump."--Cotgrave's French and English

Dictionary. Edit. 1611.

[195] Taylor's Motto: Et habeo, et careo, et curo.

[196] The writer of an article on Whist, in the Foreign Quarterly

Review, No. 48, discussing the etymology of the name, says: "The

Irish injunction, Whisht--'be quiet,' may be thought to require

consideration. It is the exact form of the word, barring only the

pure s; but this is not the Sibboleth, or touchstone, here. At the

utmost, the difficulty is but a dialectical variety, _elegantiæ causa_,

for the sake of elegance; just as shoup, for soup."--Nares, in his

Glossary, under the word Whist, an exclamation enjoining silence, says

of the game, "That the name of Whist is derived from this, is known, I

presume, to all who play, or do not play."

[197] A Whisk, a small kind of besom: a swab or swabber, a kind of mop.

[198] "Whist; by an Amateur: its History and Practice," p. 28, 1843.--A

beautiful little book, with appropriate illustrations, designed by

Kenny Meadows, and engraved on wood by Orrin Smith and W. J. Linton.

[199] "Oldsworth upbraided the late Earl of Godolphin with having a

race-horse, and the Earl of Sunderland with having a library, very

honestly insinuating that the former made an ill use of the one, and

the latter no use at all of the other."--The Censor censured; or Cato

turned Cataline, a pamphlet, published in 1722.

[200] "Mr. Pope's beautiful description of the manner of playing this

game."--Seymour's Court Gamester, 1722.--"It is Belinda's game in

the Rape of the Lock, where every incident in the whole deal is so

described, that when Ombre is forgotten (and it is almost so already)

it may be revived with posterity from that admirable poem."--Barrington

on the Antiquity of Card-playing. Pope's Grotto, and Hampton Court,

excite in the mind of Miss Mitford "vivid images of the fair Belinda

and of the inimitable game at Ombre."--Our Village, fourth series.

[201] Serious Reflections on the dangerous tendency of the common

practice of Card-playing; especially the game of All-Fours, as it hath

been publickly played at Oxford in this present year of our Lord, 1754.

[202] The Princesses were the daughters of George Prince of Wales,

afterwards George II. One of them, Amelia, in her old maidenhood, was a

regular visitor at Bath, seeking health at the pump, and amusement at

the card-table.

[203] About 1721, a pack of cards was published, ridiculing the

principal bubble schemes of the day, but more especially the South Sea

project. About the same time, a set of caricature cards, ridiculing the

Mississippi scheme, was published in Holland.

[204] "The Saxons called it Akeman-ceaster, which has been interpreted

the City of Valetudinarians."--Bath Guide. It is worthy of remark that

most watering-places much visited by wealthy invalids, abroad as well

as at home, are also the haunts of gamesters. "Where the carrion is,

there are the vultures."

[205] "At this period it was the fashion for the ladies to adorn their

heads, before they entered the bath, with all the lures of dress. By

these means their charms were set off to such advantage, that the

husband of a lady, who, with Nash and other spectators, was admiring

the female dabblers, told his wife 'she looked like an angel, and he

wished to be with her.' Nash seized the favorable occasion to establish

his reputation as a man of gallantry and spirit, and therefore suddenly

taking the gentleman by the collar and the waistband of his breeches,

soused him over the parapet into the bath."--Life of Beau Nash.

[206] An analogous case, at cards, of _begging_ for a point in order to

inspire the adversary with an erroneous opinion of the _beggar_ being

weak, is thus related by Paschasius Justus of Pope Leo X. His holiness

once, when playing at a game similar to Primero, held such cards as

made it impossible for him to lose, except from the circumstance of

his being the last player; but as his adversary, whose turn it was to

declare first, proposed a heavy stake, he concluded that he held as

good cards as himself. Being reluctant to yield the game, "give me a

point," he cried, "and I will see you." The other, not suspecting that

the Pope held such capital cards, readily assented, and consequently

lost.--The narrator says that he could applaud the trick, if his

holiness had returned the loser his stake.--Pasc. Justi Aleæ, lib. i,

p. 50. Edit. Neapoli Nemetum [Neustadt, in the diocese of Spires], 1617.

[207] The Literary Register, or Weekly Miscellany, p. 296, Newcastle on

Tyne, 1771.

[208] "Uninflammable as the times were, they carried a great mixture

of superstition. Masquerades had been abolished, because there had

been an earthquake at Lisbon; and when the last jubilee-masquerade was

exhibited at Ranelagh, the alehouses and roads to Chelsea were crowded

with drunken people, who assembled to denounce the judgments of God

on persons of fashion, whose greatest sin was dressing themselves

ridiculously. A more inconvenient reformation, and not a more sensible

one, was set on foot by societies of tradesmen, who denounced to the

magistrate all bakers that baked or sold bread on Sundays. Alum, and

the variety of spurious ingredients with which bread, and, indeed,

all wares, were adulterated all the week round, gave not half so much

offence as the vent of the chief necessary of life on a Sunday."--Earl

of Orford's Memoirs, vol. ii, p. 283.

[209] The king not only allowed of gaming at the groom porter's at the

Christmas holidays, but used to pay a formal visit there himself at the

commencement of the "season."

[210] From an advertisement in the public papers, subsequently

referred to by the author, it would appear that this compliment to the

secretaries of state was ironical. It is there stated that a set of

gentlemen of character and fortune had determined to enforce the acts

of parliament respecting unlawful games of play, whether with cards

or otherwise; and that they were firmly resolved that neither the

sanctuary at WHITE's, nor the more sacred mansion of a secretary of

state, should prevent their putting their design in execution. It is

not surprising that cards should be a favorite game with diplomatists,

seeing that their regular vocation consists in cutting and shuffling,

and that their grand game is usually won by a trick. Talleyrand was a

capital player both at cards and protocols. Espartero, when Regent of

Spain, is said to have played at cards with the ministers as he lay in

bed. Cabral, the Portuguese minister, is also a great card-player.

[211] This collection of caricatures is contained in a small volume of

a square form, like that of a pocket dictionary. In the title, the work

is said to have been "digested and published by M. Darly, at the Acorn

in Ryder's Court, Cranbourn Alley, Leicester Fields." Subsequently,

Darly published another volume, of the same size, entitled 'A Political

and Satirical History, displaying the unhappy Influence of Scotch

Prevalency in the years 1761, 1762, and 1763; being a regular series

of ninety-six humourous, transparent, and entertaining prints. With

an explanatory Key to every print.' These two volumes contain the

most numerous and interesting series of political caricatures that

had hitherto appeared in England. The caricatures which appeared

in the Political Register from 1767 to 1772 may be considered as a

continuation of the series published by Darly.

[212] In the same volume there is another plate of the same kind,

showing the coat cards for 1756.

[213] A Critical Enquiry regarding the real Author of the Letters of

Junius, proving them to have been written by Lord Viscount Sackville.

By George Coventry, p. 34, 1825. Copies of _two_ of the caricatures on

Lord George Sackville are given in this work.

[214] At the foot of the title-page of the second volume, for the years

1761-2-3, there is a notice, that "sketches or hints, sent post-paid

[to the publisher], will have due honour shewn them."

[215]

"Et decus ob patrium, et studiosæ pubis in usus,

Construxere sacros chartis fidibusque penates."

C. ANSTEY, ad C. W. BAMPFYLDE, Epistola, 1777.

[216] Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect, by R. Anderson. An explanation

of a few terms in the above verses will render them more intelligible

to the reader who has the misfortune to be unacquainted with the

Cumberland dialect. _Clipt and heeled_, prepared for the sport,

like cocks for fighting. _Lish_, sprightly, active. _Cuttered_,

cooed, like billing doves. _Stour_, dust. _Lanter_, three-card loo.

_Caird-lakers_, card-players. Lanter, or lant, so common in Cumberland

and Northumberland, appears to have been unknown to a deservedly high

authority on all sports and games: "The editor does not know the game

of _Lant_."--Bell's Life in London, 4th March, 1838.

[217] Some curious particulars--somewhat exaggerated--respecting

certain great card-players of this period will be found in 'The

Adventures of a Guinea.'

[218] An Address to Persons of Fashion relating to Balls: with a few

occasional Hints concerning Play-houses, Card-tables, &c. By the Author

of Pietas Oxoniensis. Sixth edition, 1771.

[219] "The causes of infidelity are various. Before the improved

sagacity of Dr. Rennell had discovered that it owed its origin to

Popery, his wisdom had detected its source, artfully lurking in the

'unmeaning combinations' of a pack of cards."--Reflections on the

Spirit of Religious Controversy, by the Rev. Joseph Fletcher, of

Hexham, England, p. 192. 12mo, New York, 1808.