W. Gregor, Mr. S. O. Addy, and Miss Fowler, who very generously placed collections at my disposal, which had been prepared before they knew of my project; also Miss Burne, Miss L. E. Broadwood, and others, for kindly obtaining variants and tunes I should not otherwise have received. To the many versions now printed for the first time I have added either a complete transcript of, where necessary, or a reference to, where that was sufficient, printed versions of games to be found in the well-known collections of Halliwell and Chambers, the publications of the Folk-lore and Dialect Societies, Jamieson s, Nares , and Halliwell s Dictionaries, and other printed sources of information. When quoting from a printed authority, I have as far as possible given the exact words, and have always given the reference. I had hoped to have covered in my collection the whole field of games as played by children in the United Kingdom, but it will be seen that many counties in each country are still unrepresented; and I shall be greatly indebted for any games from other places, which would help to make this collection more complete.
_, III., v. 82, A lady can at such Al-hid beguile a wiser man, is quoted in Murray s _Dictionary_ as the first reference. All a Row All a row, a bendy bow, Shoot at a pigeon and kill a crow; Shoot at another and kill his brother; Shoot again and kill a wren, And that ll do for gentlemen. --Northall s _English Folk Rhymes_, p. 386. This is a marching game for very little children, who follow each other in a row. (_b_) Halliwell gives the first two lines only (_Nursery Rhymes_, No. dxv., p.
=_ The general method of playing is identical with that of whist, with the following exceptions:-- When it is dummy’s turn to play, his partner selects the card. _=The Revoke.=_ For this dummy is not liable to any penalty, as his adversaries can see his cards. Even should the revoke be occasioned by dummy’s cards being disarranged, or one of them covered up, the adversaries should be as able to detect the error as the partner. Should dummy’s hand revoke, it cannot be remedied after the trick in which it occurs has been turned and quitted; and the game must proceed as if no revoke had occurred. All the penalties for a revoke may be enforced against dummy’s partner, should he renounce in error, and not correct it in time. There being no American laws for dummy, the English penalty of three tricks or three points may be enforced, and the revoking player cannot win the game that hand. _=Cards Played in Error.=_ Dummy’s partner is not liable to any penalty for cards dropped face upwards on the table, or two or more played at once, because it is obvious that Dummy cannot gain any advantage from such exposed cards. _=Leading out of Turn.
| -- | -- | -- | | 7.| -- | -- | -- | | 8.| -- | -- | -- | | 9.| -- | -- | -- | |10.| -- | -- | -- | |11.| -- | -- | -- | |12.|One go rush and the | -- | -- | | |other go hush. | | | |13.| -- |Give a gold ring and a|A guinea gold ring and| | | |silver watch. |a silver pin.
Knor and Spell See Nur and Spell. Lab A game of marbles (undescribed).--Patterson s _Antrim and Down Glossary_. See Lag. Lady of the Land [Music] --Tong, Shropshire (Miss R. Harley). I. Here comes the lady of the land, With sons and daughters in her hand; Pray, do you want a servant to-day? What can she do? She can brew, she can bake, She can make a wedding cake Fit for you or any lady in the land. Pray leave her. I leave my daughter safe and sound, And in her pocket a thousand pound, And on her finger a gay ring, And I hope to find her so again.
” Each side has four shots with four separate pieces. Fifty points is game. BILLIARDS. _=THE TABLE.=_ The standard American billiard table for championship games is ten feet by five; but that in common use is nine by four and a half. The old tables for the four-ball game had only four pockets, but all modern pool tables have six. The English billiard tables are all twelve feet by six, with six pockets, which are used for both billiards and pool. The head of the table is the end from which the players make their opening shots, and the foot is that on which the red ball is spotted. The baulk is the space at the head of the table behind a line drawn from the second diamonds or “sights” through the white spot. The “D” is the semicircle on the baulk line on English tables.
A supposed resemblance originated them. Britton (_Beauties of Wiltshire_, Glossary) says the game in London schools is called Scratch-scratch or Scratch-cradle. [Illustration: Cat s Cradle Taking off Soldier s Bed Taking off Candles Taking off Cat s Cradle (upside down) Cat s Eyes Fish.] The game is known to savage peoples. Professor Haddon noted it among the Torres Straits people, who start the game in the same manner as we do, but continue it differently (_Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, vol. xix. p.
| -- | -- | |19.| -- | -- | |20.| -- | -- | |21.| -- | -- | |22.|Last to stoop down |We ll all cow down | | |shall be married. |together. | |23.| -- | -- | |24.| -- | -- | |25.|He came to inquire, |They shall be married | | |down she came, so off |with gold ring.
_=Misdealing.=_ A misdeal loses the deal. It is a misdeal: If the cards have not been properly cut, if the dealer does not give the same number of cards to each player on the same round; if he gives too many or too few cards to any player; if he counts the cards on the table, or those remaining in the pack; or if he deals a card incorrectly, and fails to correct the error before dealing another. If the dealer is interrupted in any way by an adversary, he does not lose his deal. _=Bidding.=_ After receiving his nine cards, each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, announces the number of points he will undertake to win if he is allowed to name the trump suit. No player is allowed to bid more than fourteen. If he will not bid, he must say: “I pass.” A bid having been regularly made, any following player must bid higher or pass. There are no second bids.
With two plain-suit Aces and the royal marriage, the pone would close before playing to the first trick, trusting to catch at least 4 points with his two aces, and then to show the marriage, making his adversary schwartz. Some judgment is necessary in deciding whether or not to draw before closing. If a player is allowed to draw, he may get a trump, or a guard to one that you suspect he has. Suppose he has exchanged the Nine for the Ten, and you have Ace and royal marriage; it is very likely that the Ten is unguarded, and if you close without drawing you may catch it, which will make your three trumps alone good for 68. This also shows that the player should not have taken up the Ten until he wanted to use it. Nothing is gained by closing, except compelling the adversary to follow suit; because if you close to make him schwartz, and he gets a trick, you count two only; if you close to make him schneider, and he gets out, you count one only. If you fail in the first case, he counts three, and any failure will give him two points. THREE-HANDED SIXTY-SIX. This is exactly the same as the ordinary game, except that the dealer takes no cards, but scores whatever points are won on the hand he deals. If neither of the others score, either through each making 65, or one failing to claim 66, the dealer scores one point, and the others get nothing.
=_ Each game is complete in one deal, and the score of the loser is deducted from that of the winner. The combinations which may be declared and scored are the same as in Bézique, but owing to the use of four packs of cards double combinations are much more frequent, and triple combinations are not uncommon. The chief concern of the player must be, first of all, to save himself from a rubicon; that is, either to reach 1000 points, or to score as few points as possible. If he does not reach 1000, his adversary will take whatever he has scored, and add them to his own, besides 1300 in addition for rubicon and brisques. For instance: At the end of the hand A has scored 1200, and B has only 700. B is rubiconed, and his 700 points are added to A’s 1200, together with 1300 more for a rubicon game and brisques; giving A a grand total of 3200 points to nothing. Had B reached 1000, he would have saved his rubicon, and A would have scored the difference only, or 200 points, plus 500 for the game; 700 altogether. _=Brisques.=_ The aces and Tens of each suit are of no value unless it is necessary to count them to decide a tie, or to save a rubicon. They are never scored during the play of the hand.
YELLOW ” RED. GREEN ” YELLOW. BROWN ” GREEN. BLUE ” BROWN. PINK ” BLUE. SPOT-WHITE ” PINK. SPOT-RED ” SPOT-WHITE. SPOT-YELLOW ” SPOT-RED. SPOT-GREEN ” SPOT-YELLOW. SPOT-BROWN ” SPOT-GREEN.
If you double up five times you are betting 16 to 1; but the odds against five successive events are 31 to 1, as we have already seen, and the bank should pay you 31 instead of 16. You should not only double, but add the original amount of the stake each time, betting 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, and so on. If you do this, you will win the amount of your original stake for every bet you make, instead of only for every time you win. This looks well, but as a matter of fact doubling up is only another way of borrowing small sums which will have to be paid back in one large sum when you can probably least afford it. Suppose the game is Faro, the chips five dollars a stack, and the limit on cases twenty-five dollars. The limit on cases will then be 400 chips. If eight successive events go against your “system,” which they will do about once in 255 times, your next bet will be beyond the limit, and the banker will not accept it. At Monte Carlo the smallest bet is a dollar, and the limit is $2,400. They roll about 4,000 coups a week, and if you were to bet on every one of them, doubling up, you would win about $1,865, one dollar at a time, and would lose $4,092 simply through being unable to follow your system beyond the limit of the game during the two or three occasions, in the 4,000 coups, that your system would go against you for eleven or more coups in succession. It is useless to say it would not go against you so often, for probabilities teach us that it would be more wonderful if it did not than if it did.
|You shall have a duck.|She shall have a duck,| | | |(after No. 19) |my dear. | | 13.| -- |I will give pots and | -- | | | |pans. | | | 14.| -- |....
If you play the Queen, that is a finesse, because you hope to take a trick with it, although the King is against you. It is usually bad play to finesse when there are nine cards of the suit between the two hands, dealer’s and Dummy’s, because there is a good chance that the card you wish to finesse against may fall. When it will be necessary to take two finesses in the same suit, the lead must come twice from the weaker hand. Suppose the dealer holds A Q J and others. If the first finesse of the Jack wins, he should put Dummy in again, so as to take a second finesse of the Queen. Suppose the dealer holds A J 10, and finesses the ten the first time. If it falls to the Queen, he should get Dummy in again, so as to take the second finesse with the Jack. The idea is to take advantage of the fact that the odds are against both King and Queen being in one hand. If they are both on the right, one of them will be played on the small card led from Dummy, and then the dealer can win it with the Ace and force out the other high card with his Jack, which will have become one of the second and third-best of the suit. _=Re-entry Cards.
In England it is the rule to take back the cards and play the hand over again, as at Écarté, the revoking player paying all the stakes according to the result. This is often very unfair to the bidder, and leads to endless disputes as to who held certain cards which have been gathered into tricks. Sometimes the difference between a seven and an eight in a certain player’s hand will change the entire result. _=PAYMENTS.=_ If the bidder succeeds in winning the specified number of tricks, each adversary pays him a counter for every trick bid. If he bid three tricks, they pay him three counters each; four counters each for four tricks bid; and the value of three tricks for a misère. If he fails to win the specified number of tricks, he pays each adversary; three counters if he bid three tricks, or a misère; four if he bid four. Any player bidding nap, and succeeding in winning all five tricks, receives ten counters from each adversary; but if he fails, he pays only five to each. When penny nap is played, the settlement being in coin, it is usual to make naps win a shilling or lose sixpence, in order to avoid handling so much copper. _=SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY.
S.A. DUPLICATE WHIST. Duplicate whist is not a distinct game, but is simply the name given to that manner of playing whist in which a number of hands are played over again with the same cards, but by different persons. _=CARDS.=_ The cards have the same rank as at whist; they are dealt in the same manner, and the same rules apply to all irregularities in the deal, except that a misdealer must deal again. The objects of the game are the same, and so are all the suggestions for good play. The only differences that require attention are the positions of the players, the manner of counting the tricks, and the methods of keeping and comparing the scores. _=THEORY.=_ It may briefly be stated that duplicate proceeds upon the principle that if two partners have made a certain number of tricks with certain cards, under certain conditions with respect to the lead, distribution of the other cards in the adversaries’ hands, etc.
Get a man to watch all night, Grant said the little bee, Get a man to watch all night, Where I d be. Perhaps that man might fall asleep, Grant said the little bee, Perhaps that man might fall asleep, Where I d be. Get a dog to watch all night, Grant said the little bee, Get a dog to watch all night, Where I d be. If that dog should run away, Grant said the little bee, If that dog should run away, Where I d be. Give that dog a bone to pick, Grant said the little bee, Give that dog a bone to pick, Where I d be. --Belfast, Ireland (W. H. Patterson). II. London Bridge is broken down, Dance o er my lady lee, London Bridge is broken down, With a gay lady.
The game is also practised at the Newcastle Races and other places of amusement in the North with three pegs, which are put into three circular holes made in the ground about two feet apart, and forming a triangle. In this case each hole contains a peg about nine inches long, upon which are deposited either a small knife or some copper. The person playing gives so much for each stick, and gets all the articles that are thrown off so as to fall on the outside of the holes.--Northumberland (Brockett s _North Country Glossary_). All the Birds in the Air A Suffolk game, not described (Moor s _Suffolk Glossary_). Jamieson also gives it without description. Compare the rhyme in the game Fool, fool, come to School, Little Dog, I call you. All the Boys in our Town I. All the boys in our town Shall lead a happy life, Except tis ----, and he wants a wife. A wife he shall have, and a-courting he shall go, Along with ----, because he loves her so.
To prison we will not go, Go, go, go; go, go, go; To prison we will not go, My fair lady. --Shipley, Horsham (_Notes and Queries_, 8th Series, i. 210, Miss Busk). VI. See the robbers coming through, Coming through, coming through, See the robbers coming through, A nice young lady. Here s a prisoner we have got, We have got, we have got, Here s a prisoner we have got, A nice young lady. How many pounds to set her free, Set her free, set her free, How many pounds to set her free, A nice young lady? A hundred pounds to set her free, Set her free, set her free, A hundred pounds to set her free, A nice young lady. A hundred pounds we cannot give, We cannot give, we cannot give, A hundred pounds we cannot give, A nice young lady. Then to prison she must go, She must go, she must go, Then to prison she must go, A nice young lady. If she goes we ll go too, We ll go too, we ll go too, If she goes we ll go too, A nice young lady.
Only one combination can be announced at a time, and it must be melded immediately after the player holding it has won a trick, and before he draws his card from the stock. If he draws without announcing, even if he has not seen the card drawn, he cannot meld anything until he wins another trick. The melds and their values are as follows:-- CLASS A. King and Queen of any plain suit, _=Marriage=_, 20 King and Queen of Trumps, _=Royal Marriage=_, 40 The five highest trumps, _=Sequence=_, 150 CLASS B. Spade Queen and diamond Jack, _=Binocle=_, 40 Two spade Queens and diamond Jacks, _=Double Binocle=_, 80 King and Queen of spades, and diamond Jack, _=Grand Binocle=_, 80 CLASS C. Four Aces of different suits, 100 Four Kings of different suits, 80 Four Queens of different suits, 60 Four Jacks of different suits, 40 Eight Aces, 200 Eight Kings, 160 Eight Queens, 120 Eight Jacks, 80 The third meld in class B is not often played in America. The count for it is the same, 80 points, whether the marriage in spades is the trump suit or not. It will be observed that the court cards in class C must be of different suits in Binocle, whereas, in Bézique, any four court cards may be declared. The following rules govern all classes of declarations:-- The player making the declaration must have won the previous trick, and must meld before drawing his card from the stock. When the stock is exhausted, so that no cards remain to be drawn, no further announcements can be made.
=_ The game is 50 points. Each trick over the first six counts four in grands, but in some places only two in nullos. This must be agreed upon before play. Tricks over the book count for the bidder’s side in grands, but against him in nullos. If the bidder and his partner fail to get the odd trick in a grand, his opponents count double for each trick they win over the book, but in nullos there is no double value. _=PENALTIES.=_ In case of a revoke, the side in fault gives three tricks to its opponents in grands, or receives three if it is a nullo. The penalty for a lead out of turn is to call a suit. RUM. There are several varieties of this game, and quite a number of ways of playing them, but the standard method, as adopted by the best clubs, is that here given.
_=The Board.=_ Checkers is played upon a board which is not more than sixteen, nor less than fourteen inches square, and is divided into sixty-four smaller squares of equal size. These squares are of different colours, alternately light and dark, and the board must be so placed that each player shall have a light square at his right on the side nearer him. _=The Men.=_ Each player is provided with twelve men, which are circular in form, one inch in diameter, and three eighths thick. The men on one side are red or black; those on the other white or yellow. The men must be placed on the _=black=_ squares. _=Diagrams.=_ For convenience in illustrating games and problems the men are always shown as placed on the white squares, type made in that manner being more easily read. The following diagram will show the proper arrangement of the men at the beginning of the game, if the white squares are supposed to be black ones:-- [Illustration: +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | | ⛀ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | | | | | | | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | ⛂ | | +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ ] _=Two Move Restriction.
| | | |35.|Suppose the nuts were | -- | -- | | |rotten and bad. | | | |36.| -- |Set a dog to bark all | -- | | | |night. | | |37.| -- |If the dog should meet| -- | | | |a bone. | | |38.| -- | -- | -- | |39.| -- |Set a cock to crow | -- | | | |all night. | | |40.
Every time you allow your adversary to take in a brisque which you might have won, you make a difference of twenty points in the score. While you are hugging three Aces, waiting for a fourth, your adversary may get home all his Tens, and then turn up with your fourth Ace in his hand. _=Discarding.=_ It is usually best to settle upon one of two suits or combinations, and to discard the others, for you cannot play for everything. Having once settled on what to play for, it is generally bad policy to change unless something better turns up. Your adversary’s discards will often be a guide as to the combinations he hopes to make, and will show you that you need not keep certain cards. For instance: If a binocle player discards or plays two heart Kings, it is unlikely that he has either of the Queens, and you may reasonably hope for 60 Queens; but it will be impossible for you to make anything out of your Kings but marriages. In Bézique, where Kings may be of the same suit in fours, you will have a slightly better chance for 80 Kings on account of your adversary’s discards, because he certainly has no more, as he would not break up three Kings. _=Declaring.=_ It is often a nice point to decide whether or not you can afford to make minor declarations while holding higher ones in your hand.
=_ Two persons play. They cut for the first deal, and the choice of seats. _=DEALING.=_ The dealer presents the pack to his adversary to be cut, and then gives thirteen cards to each player, one at a time, turning up the twenty-seventh card for the trump, and laying it on the talon, or remainder of the pack. _=PLAYING.=_ The non-dealer begins by leading any card he pleases, and his adversary must follow suit if he can. The winner of the first trick takes the trump card into his hand, and his adversary takes the card immediately under it, but without showing or naming it. Each player thus restores the number of cards in his hand to thirteen. The card which is now on the top of the talon is turned up, and the winner of the next trick must take it, his adversary taking the one under it, as before, and turning up the next. In this manner it will be seen that the winner of each trick must always get a card which is known to his adversary, while the loser of the trick gets one which remains unknown.