He would neither abandon his lost gun nor adequately attack it. He sent forward a feeble little infantry attack, that we cut up with the utmost ease, taking several prisoners, made a disastrous demonstration from the church, and then fell back altogether from the gentle hill on which Hook Farm is situated to a position beside and behind an exposed cottage on the level. I at once opened out into a long crescent, with a gun at either horn, whose crossfire completely destroyed his chances of retreat from this ill-chosen last stand, and there presently we disabled his second gun. I now turned my attention to his still largely unbroken right, from which a gun had maintained a galling fire on us throughout the fight. I might still have had some stiff work getting an attack home to the church, but Red had had enough of it, and now decided to relieve me of any further exertion by a precipitate retreat. My gun to the right of Hook s Farm killed three of his flying men, but my cavalry were too badly cut up for an effective pursuit, and he got away to the extreme left of his original positions with about 6 infantry-men, 4 cavalry, and 1 gun. He went none too soon. Had he stayed, it would have been only a question of time before we shot him to pieces and finished him altogether. So far, and a little vaingloriously, the general. Let me now shrug my shoulders and shake him off, and go over this battle he describes a little more exactly with the help of the photographs.
|Girl makes a pudding. | |10.|Husband cuts a slice. |Boy cuts a slice. |Asks boy to taste. | |11.|Fixing of wedding day.|Fixing of wedding day.|Fixing of wedding day.| |12.
This B prevents, hoping to force two clubs on Y and Z and set the contract. At trick 7, if the hearts are split, the queen must win the ten. If not, Z must win one heart trick. Y makes his contract, losing four odd. BRIDGE. The difference between straight bridge, as it is sometimes called, and auction is in the method of selecting the trump, which must be declared by the dealer or his partner, the opponents having nothing to say except to double the declaration if they think it will not win the odd trick. Another point is that either side can score toward game by getting the odd trick or more, there being no penalties for failure to make the odd except losing the value of the tricks because the dealer never declares to make any given number of tricks on the hand. There are some irregularities which are peculiar to straight bridge that would not apply to auction. These are fully covered by the following description of the game, all other matters, such as the correct card to lead and the manner of combining the hands, have been fully described in connection with auction. _=MAKING THE TRUMP.
In making the exchange, no card of the nine originally dealt to the player may be kept, not even the six of trumps. The pip value of the cards won in tricks count for the player at the end of the hand. The following values are for the melds: Four jacks are worth 200 Four aces, kings, queens, or tens 100 Five cards of any suit in sequence 100 Four cards of any suit in sequence 50 Three cards of any suit in sequence 20 King and queen of trumps 20 The melds are made after the player has played his card to the first trick, whether he wins that trick or not, but the melds are not credited to him on the slate unless he wins at least one trick during the play of the hand. _=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ When four play it is sometimes permissible for one to pass out, each in turn to the left having the right. The first thing is for the holder of the six of trumps to exchange it for the turned-up trump. The player to the left of the dealer then leads any card he pleases, and each player in turn must follow suit and must head the trick if he can; by trumping if he has none of the suit led. As soon as a card is played, the player makes his meld, announcing its pip value. The winner of the last trick scores five points for it. _=SCORING.
A and Y together must win ten tricks, with diamonds for trumps. If no one makes a proposal of any sort, _=Misère Partout=_ is played; there being no trump suit. The player or players taking the least number of tricks win or divide the pool. There are no other losses or gains in Misère Partout. _=HONOURS.=_ In any call in which there is a trump suit, the A K Q and J of trumps are honours, and may be counted by the successful bidder if he carries out his proposal. If the single player, or a caller and his partner have all four honours dealt them, they score as for four over-tricks; if three, as for two over-tricks. Honours do not count for the adversaries under any circumstances. In bidding on a hand, it must be remembered that although honours will count as over-tricks in payments, they cannot be bid on. If a player has nine tricks and two by honours in his hand, he cannot bid eleven.
This must result in leaving a blot, no matter which man is played up the two Points, and White may hit this blot on his next throw. Should he do so, Black would have to throw an ace to re-enter, as all the other points in White’s home table are covered, or “made up.” Black could not throw off another man until the one hit had not only been re-entered, but had made the circuit of the board and got home again. A player is not obliged to throw off a man if he prefers to move, but he must do one or the other. In the foregoing diagram, for instance, if Black threw three-ace, he would be very foolish to take off two men, leaving a blot on his three point. He should move the ace from his four to his three point, and then take off the three, leaving no blots. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.=_ Always see that the men are properly set up. It would be a great help to many persons if the manufacturers of backgammon boards would print upon them a small diagram of the correct position of the men. The first thing for the beginner to learn is the proper manner of playing the opening throws, and this should be practised with a board and men.
When four play, they cut for partners, choice of seats, and deal; the two lowest pairing against the two highest, and the lowest taking the first deal and crib. The game is usually 121 points up, or twice round the board, and only one player on each side keeps the score. Five cards are dealt to each player, one at a time, and one of these is discarded from each hand to form the crib, leaving four cards with which to play. The right-hand adversary of the dealer cuts for deal; the left-hand adversary for the starter. The eldest hand plays first, and all pairs, sequences, and fifteens are scored by the side making them. If a player says “go,” his left-hand neighbour must play, or pass the go to the next player on his left. In this way it may pass entirely round the table to the last player, who will then peg for it. At this game there is a great deal more in the play than in either hand or crib. The average hand and crib is the same as at six-card Cribbage, 7 for the hand and 5 for the crib, but the play for the partners will run to 8 or 10 holes. Either side should be at home with 48 to 50 on two deals; four individual hands of 7 each, four plays of five each, and one crib of 5.
=_ Should the striker have his next player’s ball removed, and his own ball stop on the spot it occupied, the next player must give a miss from baulk, for which miss he does not lose a life. _=25.=_ When a ball has been taken up, and any other than the next player’s ball stop on the spot it occupied, the ball so taken up must remain in hand till it can be replaced. But if it be the turn of the ball in hand to play before the one occupying its proper place, the latter must be taken up till there be room to replace it. _=26.=_ If the corner of the cushion should prevent the striker from playing in a direct line, he can have any ball removed for the purpose of playing at the object-ball from a cushion. _=27.=_ When three players, each with one life, remain in a pool, and the striker make a miss, the other two divide without a stroke. _=28.=_ Neither of the last two players can star, but if they are left with an equal number of lives each they may divide the pool; the striker, however, is entitled to his stroke before the division.
---- We ll find a nice young lass. Mary with the rosy cheeks, Catch her if you can; And if you cannot catch her, We ll tell you her young man. --Hanging Heaton (Herbert Hardy). A ring is formed by the children joining hands, one child in the centre. The first verse is sang. Two children from the ring go to the one in the centre and _ask_ her who is her love, or as they say here [Yorks.], who she goes with; after that the rest is sung. See All the Boys. Merrils See Nine Men s Morris. Merritot, or the Swing This sport, which is sometimes called Shuggy-shew in the North of England, is described as follows by Gay:-- On two near elms the slackened cord I hung, Now high, now low, my Blouzalinda swung.
| -- | -- | -- | |38.| -- | -- | -- | |39.| -- | -- | -- | |40.| -- | -- | -- | |41.| -- |What will you have to |What will you take to | | | |set her free? |let him out? | |42.| -- |Fourteen pounds and a |Ten hundred pounds | | | |wedding gown. |will let him out. | |43.| -- | -- |Then a hundred pounds | | | | |we have not got. | |44.
At first he may care little or nothing for “book” whist, but after some experience with book players, he is rather in danger of running to the other extreme, and putting more book into his game than it will carry. Having passed that stage, his next step is usually to invent some system of his own, and to experiment with every hand he plays. By degrees he finds that all special systems of play have some serious defects which over-balance their advantages, and this discovery gradually brings him back to first principles. If he gets so far safely, his game for all future time will probably be sound, common-sense whist, without any American leads, plain-suit echoes, or four-signals, and free from any attempts to take fourteen tricks with thirteen cards. When a whist-player reaches that point, he is probably as near the first class as the natural limitations of his mental abilities will ever permit him to go. _=THE LAWS=_ will be found at the end of the Whist Family of Games. ILLUSTRATIVE WHIST HANDS. A and B are partners against Y and Z. A is always the original leader, and Z is the dealer. The underlined card wins the trick, and the card under it is the next one led.
The player first making seven points in this manner wins the game. A player may reach sixty-six by winning tricks containing certain counting cards; by holding and announcing marriages, which are the King and Queen of any suit; and by winning the last trick. The various counts for these are as follows:-- For King and Queen of trumps, _=Royal Marriage=_, 40 For King and Queen of any plain suit, _=Marriage=_, 20 For the Ace of any suit, 11 For the Ten of any suit, 10 For the King of any suit, 4 For the Queen of any suit, 3 For the Jack of any suit, 2 For the last or twelfth trick, 10 The marriages count for the player holding and announcing them; all other points for the player actually winning them. The last trick does not count unless it is the twelfth; that is, not unless every card is played. _=Method of Playing.=_ The pone begins by leading any card he pleases. The second player in any trick is not obliged to follow suit, even in trumps; but may renounce or trump at pleasure until the players cease to draw from the stock. If the second player follows suit, the higher card wins the trick. Trumps win all other suits. _=Drawing.
He clears his throat startlingly, lugs at the still growing ends of his moustache, and says, with just a faint and fading doubt in his voice as to whether he can do it, Yas, Sir! [Illustration: Fig. 5b--Battle of Hook s Farm. After the Cavalry Mêlée] [Illustration: Fig. 6a--Battle of Hook s Farm. Prisoners being led to the rear.] Now for a while you listen to General H. G. W., of the Blue Army. You hear tales of victory.
At least five cards must be left in each packet. The cards are then dealt three at a time for the first round, two for the next, and three for the last, each player receiving eight cards. The seventeenth is then turned up for the trump. If this card is a Seven, the dealer scores 10 points for it at once. The trump card is laid on the table by itself, the remainder of the pack, which is called the _=stock=_ or _=talon=_, is slightly spread, to facilitate the process of drawing cards from it, and to be sure that none of the cards remaining in the undealt portion are exposed. In sixty-four-card Binocle twelve cards are sometimes dealt to each player. _=Misdealing.=_ A misdeal does not lose the deal, but in some cases a new deal is at the option of the adversary. If the dealer exposes a card belonging to the adversary or to the stock, the pone may demand a new deal; but if either player exposes any of his own cards, the deal stands good. If too many cards are given to either player, there must be a new deal.
=_ From hands containing three trumps or less, our opening leads vary from the ordinary player’s game more than in any other particular. We always open a long suit from three-trump hands if the suit is a good one, such as A K and others, K Q and others, or even Q J and others. But without such strength in the long suit, we let it severely alone, and develop the hand with a short-suit or “gambit” opening. With three trumps and a five-card suit containing two honors not in sequence, we still open the long suit if we have a sure re-entry in another suit. This, for example, hearts trumps:-- ♡ K 6 2 ♣ 8 6 2 ♢ A Q 6 4 3 ♠ A 10 The trey of diamonds is the best opening. If there were no re-entry, such as only 10 2 of spades instead of A 10, we should open the 10 of spades. Although we open a great many short suits, we avoid weak three-card suits except in rare instances. While our system, like all others, entails losses at times, it seems to avoid many of the pitfalls that confront the player who always opens his long suit, regardless of the possibilities of ever bringing it in. In many instances we find he places himself in the worst possible position for any chance to make even one trick in the suit he opens. We admit that if a team adopts straight American leads, it is much easier for them to count the partner’s hand accurately; but it seems to me that this advantage is more than overcome by the fact that in our openings we have a clear idea as to the general character of the partner’s hand while there is still time to take advantage of the knowledge.
He acted mighty glad for a win--maybe it was a while since he d hit it. I decided to give him a run of luck. Now in charge of my chips, Sniffles called the turn on every roll. She was hot. It wasn t just that she followed where the gambler next to me put his dough--she was ahead of him on pushing out the chips on half the rolls. He quickly saw that my chips had stayed on the same side of the line each roll as his. He cursed me for a good luck mascot. Stick with me, Lefty, he said. We ll break the table! I rammed a hard lift under his heart, and then, ashamed of myself, quit it. He turned pale before I took it off him.
The same game is called Frimsey-framsey in parts of the county of Antrim.--Patterson s _Antrim and Down Glossary_. Compare Cushion Dance. Frog-lope Name for Leap-frog. --Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_. Frog in the Middle One child is seated on the ground with his legs under him; the other players form a ring round. They then pull or buffet the centre child or Frog, who tries to catch one of them without rising from the floor. The child who is caught takes the place of the centre child. Another method of playing the game is similar to Bull in the Park. The child in the centre tries to break out of the ring, those forming it keeping the Frog in the ring by any means in their power, while still keeping their hands clasped.
The Barnes version of Rise, Daughter is also played in this way. The daughter lays down, and at the end of the game joins the line, and another lays down. In the Hurstmonceux version, when the last verse is sung, the girl in the middle rises and picks a boy out of the ring; he goes in the middle with her, and they kiss. The version given by Halliwell is played in the same way as the Barnes version. (_c_) Halliwell (_Game Rhymes_, p. 219) gives a version of a Swedish ballad or ring dance-song, entitled Fair Gundela, he considers this may be a prototype of the English game, or that they may both be indebted to a more primitive original. The Swedish game rather gives the idea of a maiden who has sought supernatural assistance from a wise woman, or witch, to ask after the fate of those dear to her, and the English versions may also be dramatic renderings of a ballad of this character. Mr. Jacobs _More English Fairy Tales_, p. 221, considers this game to have originated from the Tale of the Golden Ball.
None of the latter are of any value; but all those in the other hand are good. If the best sequence is a tie, no sequences can be scored by either player. The value of a sequence is ten more than the number of cards that go to form it, provided that number exceeds four. A tierce counts 3 only, and a quatrième 4 only; but a quinte is worth 15, a sixième 16, and so on. _=Fours, and Triplets.=_ Any four cards of the same denomination, higher than a Nine, is called a Quatorze; three of any kind higher than the Nine is called a Trio, or sometimes a Brelan. As a trio is seldom mentioned without naming the denomination, it is usual to say; “Three Kings,” or “Three Jacks,” as the case may be. The 7 8 and 9 have no value except in point and sequence. The player holding the quatorze of the highest rank may score any inferior ones that he may hold, and also any trios. Should his adversary hold any intermediate ones, they are of no value.
Académie des Jeux, (Fr.), by Van Tenac. Académie des Jeux, (Fr.), by Richard. Short Whist, by Major A. (Écarté Laws in appendix.) POOL ÉCARTÉ. Pool Écarté is played by three persons, each of whom contributes an agreed sum, which is called a _=stake=_, to form a pool. They then cut to decide which shall play the first game, the lowest écarté card going out. The players then cut for the first deal, choice of seats and cards, etc.
50. Crab-sowl, Crab-sow A game played with a bung or ball struck with sticks (Brogden s _Provincial Words, Lincolnshire_). This is played on Barnes Common, and is apparently a form of Hockey (A. B. Gomme). Crates The game of Nine Holes. This is the game described by John Jones, M.D., in his book called _The Benefit of the Auncient Bathes of Buckstones_, 1572, p. 12, as having been played by ladies at Buxton for their amusement in wet weather.
At the end of the play the claimants of a revoke may search all the tricks. If the cards have been mixed, the claim may be urged and proved if possible; but no proof is necessary and the claim is established if, after it is made, the accused player or his partner mix the cards before they have been sufficiently examined by the adversaries. 88. A revoke cannot be claimed after the cards have been cut for the following deal. 89. Should both sides revoke, the only score permitted is for honours. In such case, if one side revoke more than once, the penalty of 100 points for each extra revoke is scored by the other side. GENERAL RULES. 90. A trick turned and quitted may not be looked at (except under Law 82) until the end of the play.
The reason is that he strikes with just force enough to reach the red and go into the pocket, and this force is just enough to drive the red about the same distance in the opposite direction, leaving it where the cue ball came from--in baulk. The English do not understand gathering shots, nursing, and cushion carroms so well as the Americans, and play chiefly for the winning and losing hazards. The objective point of the expert is the _=spot stroke=_, which consists in getting exactly behind the red ball when it is on its spot, and then driving it into the corner pocket, returning the cue ball to its position with a light draw shot. If the cue ball fails to come back exactly behind the red the position may be recovered in several ways, some of which are shown in the diagrams. [Illustration] No. 1 is the perfect position for the spot stroke; the dotted lines in the others show the course that must be followed by the cue ball to recover the initial position. _=Man-of-war Game=_ is a variety of English billiards in which there are three white balls, each belonging to different players. The following _=LAWS=_ are taken, by permission, from the rules published by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. ENGLISH BILLIARD LAWS. _=1.
This variety of the game did not long remain in favor, but gave way to make room for one of the most important changes, the restoration of the deuces to the pack, which introduced the feature of the odd trick. This took place early in the last century, and seems to have so much improved the game that attention was soon drawn to its possibilities for scientific treatment. About this time whist was taken up by a set of gentlemen who met at the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row, London; chief among whom was Sir Jacob de Bouverie, Viscount Folkestone. After considerable experiment and practice this little whist school laid down the principles of the game as being: “to play from the strong suit; to study the partner’s hand; never to force partner unnecessarily, and to attend to the score.” It is generally believed that Edmond Hoyle was familiar with the proceedings of this set, and on their experiences based his celebrated “Short Treatise on the Game of Whist,” which was entered at Stationers’ Hall in London Nov. 17, 1742. The only works previous to Hoyle touching upon whist were the “Compleat Gamester” of Cotton, which first appeared in 1674, and the “Court Gamester,” of Richard Seymour, 1719. One of Hoyle’s great points was his calculation of the probabilities at various stages of the rubber. This seems to have been looked upon as most important in guiding persons in their play, for we find that Abraham de Moivre, a famous mathematician, used to frequent the coffee houses, and for a small fee give decisions on questions of the odds at whist. Bath seems to have been the great rallying-point for the whist-players of the last century; but the passion for the game soon spread all over Europe.