When one player reaches his game-hole before the other turns the corner, it is called a _=lurch=_, and counts two games. The pegs are so often lose or mislaid that it is much more convenient to use a _=pull-up=_ cribbage board, in which every hole is provided with its own peg, which may be raised to indicate the count. The back pegs can be either left standing or pushed down again. [Illustration] The board is always placed midway between the players. If three persons play, a triangular board is necessary. This is provided with three sets of holes and three game holes. When a cribbage board is not at hand, the game may be kept by ruling a sheet of paper into ten divisions, and marking them with the figures 1 to 0 on each side: +---------------------------------------+ | 0 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | +---------------------------------------+ | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | +---------------------------------------+ Each player being provided with two coins, one silver and one copper, (or different sizes,) the copper coin can be advanced from point to point to count units, and the silver coin will mark the tens. _=PLAYERS.=_ Cribbage is distinctly a game for two players, although three may play, each for himself, or four, two being partners against the other two. When two play, one is known as the _=dealer=_, and the other as the non-dealer, or the _=pone=_.
The number of tricks is not mentioned. In case there are no bids, each in turn has a second chance to bid for the widow. These bids are made in counters, to be put into the pool. The highest bidder takes the widow, lays out two cards, and then names the trump suit. The players agree upon a value for the tricks won, and payments are made from the pool accordingly. These payments may vary according to the rank of the trump suit. ODD GAMES. There are quite a number of odd games of cards, which come and go as favourites from time to time, and pass round the world from one country to another under many different names. The origin of most of these games is lost in the weedy undergrowth of variations, but the chief family trait in some of them can be traced back to the alpha of cards. Among the oldest of games was Ombre, immortalised by Pope, the only survivor of which is a variation played by the older Germans, under the name of Solo; a game which still faintly resists the exterminating influence of Skat.
Volume I. Page 51: reference to Wind Up Jack: this game is not mentioned separately, but under Wind Up the Bush Faggot. Page 120: reference to Wind up the Watch, which is not listed as a separate game, but as a local name for Wind up the Bush Faggot. Page 137: reference to Crosspurposes: according to the description and Vol. II, this could be Cross-questions. Page 300: reference to How many miles to Barley Bridge?, which is not listed as a separate game; the phrase occurs in some of the versions of How many miles to Babylon? Page 318, section (c): The author refers to the Belfast version, but describes the Isle of Man version. This has not been changed. Page 328: reference to the game Spanish Fly, which does not occur in either volume (nor does the phrase). Page 402: reference to Ghost in the Garden and Ghost in the Copper. Neither is described as a separate game; probably the reference is to Ghost at the Well.
Successful partners divide it equally, regardless of the number of tricks bid or taken by each. If the partners fail, they must contribute to the pool an amount equal to that which they pay to one adversary. For instance: A calls seven diamonds, and asks for a partner. Y accepts him, and the pair win only nine tricks. Each pays 135 counters to the adversary sitting next him, and then they make up 135 more between them for the pool. Asking for a partner is not a popular variation of the game, and is seldom resorted to unless the successful bid is very low, or has been made on a black suit. If the adversaries of the caller declare to pay, before playing to the second trick, they can save nothing but possible over-tricks. The pool goes with every successful play. If the single player is unsuccessful, he does not double the pool, as in Boston, but pays into it the same amount that he loses to each adversary, over-tricks and all; so that he really loses four times the amount shown in the table. At the end of the game, or on the twelfth hand, if the caller does not succeed, he pays the pool as usual, and his adversaries then divide it amongst themselves.
At the end of the hand, the number of points won by each side is added up, and the lower deducted from the higher, the difference being scored by the winners of the majority. If the result is a tie, neither scores. For instance: If A-B make 11, Y-Z must make the remaining 3, which deducted from 11 leaves 8 points for A-B to score. If the side naming the trump suit fails to make as many points as they bid, they score nothing for that deal, and the number bid is scored by the adversaries, in addition to any other points that the adversaries may have made in play. The number bid and the number actually won, must be compared before deducting the points made by the adversaries. The side first making fifty-one points wins the game. * * * * * _=Text Books.=_ There are two very good text-books on the game. _The Laws and Principles of Cinch_, by G.W.
Opening.=_ After the cards are dealt, each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, may open the pot for any amount he pleases within the betting limit, provided he holds a pair of Jacks, or some hand better than a pair of Jacks. If he does not hold openers, or does not wish to open the pot with them, he must say: “I pass;” but must not abandon his hand, under penalty of paying five counters to the pool. _=39. False Openers.=_ Should a player open a jack without the hand to justify it, and discover his error before he draws, his hand is foul, and he forfeits whatever amount he may have already placed in the pool. Those who have come into the pool after the false opening, stay in and play for the pot, regardless of the value of the hands dealt them. _=40. Fattening.=_ If no player will open, the cards are reshuffled, cut, and dealt, usually by the same dealer, and each player adds one counter to the pool.
If you have a Nine, and the cards on the table are 2 2 5 7, take in the 2 2 5, in preference to the 2 7. It is considered bad policy to take in three court cards, as it stops all sweeps when the fourth appears. ROYAL CASSINO. The only difference in this form of the game is that the three court cards, K Q J, have a pip value, and may be used in combining and building, whereas in the ordinary game they can be used only in pairs. The Jack is worth 11, the Queen 12, and the King 13; so that a 9 and 2 can be taken in with a Jack, or a 6 4 and 3 with a King. In the same manner a Queen will win a Jack and Ace, or a King will win a Jack and deuce. The aces are sometimes valued at 14 each. SPADE CASSINO. In this interesting variation every spade counts one point toward game. The spade Jack counts one in addition to its being a spade, and the extra point so made takes the place of the count for “spades” in the ordinary game, so that 24 points are made in every hand, exclusive of sweeps: Cards 3; Big Cassino 2; Little Cassino 1; the four Aces 4; the spade Jack 1, and 13 spades.
, are given in connection with Solo Whist and need no further amplification for Boston de Fontainbleau. The _=Laws=_ vary so little from those used in the regular game of Boston that it is not necessary to give an additional code, either for Fontainbleau or for French Boston, which follows. FRENCH BOSTON. _=CARDS.=_ French Boston is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards, which rank as at Whist, both for cutting and playing; except that the diamond Jack is always the best trump unless diamonds are turned up, in which case the heart Jack becomes the best trump, and the diamond Jack ranks next below the diamond Queen. _=COUNTERS=_ are used as in Boston, their value being a matter of agreement before play begins. _=THE POOL=_ is made up by the dealer’s contributing ten counters for the first eight rounds, and twenty for the last two. It is increased from time to time by penalties, and is won or lost by the players, just as in Boston. There is no limit to the pool. If any player objects to dividing it at the end of the game, it must be played for until some player wins it.
If he did not hit the top with his own while it was spinning, his top had to be laid down and the other one taken up, and its owner took his turn at pegging. When a spinning-top showed signs of exhaustion, and the taking it up might kill it, and it was not very far from the down-lying top, its owner would gently push it with his finger, so as to make it touch the other top, and so avoid putting it into the other s place. This was called kissing, and was not allowed by some players. When one player succeeded in sending the top into the Gully, he took it up and fixed it by its peg into a post, mortar of a wall, or the best place where it could be tolerably steady. Holding it by one hand, he drove the peg of his own top as far as he could into the crown of the victim top. This was called taking a grudge. He then held either his own or the victim top and knocked the other against the wall, the object being to split the victim. He was allowed three grudges. If the top did not give way, the other players tried in turn. If the top did not split, it was returned to its owner, but any boy who succeeded in splitting it through the middle, so that the peg fell out, took possession of the peg.
Very well, ladies, ladies, ladies, Very well, ladies, and gentlemen too. I come to see poor Jenny Joe, Jenny Joe, Jenny Joe, I come to see poor Jenny Joe, And how is she now? She s folding, she s folding, And you can t see her now. Very well, ladies, ladies, ladies, Very well, ladies, and gentlemen too. I come to see poor Jenny Joe, Jenny Joe, Jenny Joe, I come to see poor Jenny Joe, And how is she now? She s ironing, she s ironing, And you can t see her now. Very well, ladies, ladies, ladies, Very well, ladies, and gentlemen too. [Then follow alternate questions and answers in the same manner for-- (1) dying, (2) dead. Then--] I come in my white dress, white dress, white dress, I come in my white dress, and how will that do? White is for wedding, wedding, wedding, White is for wedding, and that won t do. Very well, ladies, ladies, ladies, Very well, ladies, and gentlemen too. I come in my blue dress, blue dress, blue dress, I come in my blue dress, and how will that do? Blue is for sailors, sailors, sailors, Blue is for sailors, and that won t do. [Then follow verses as before, beginning-- Very well, ladies.
| -- | -- | -- | |32.| -- | -- | -- | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ |No.| Madeley. | Oxfordshire. | Sheffield. | +---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ | 1.|Green gravel. |Green gravel. | -- | | 2.| -- | -- |Round the green | | | | |gravel.
If the dealer gives too many or too few cards to either player a new deal is at the option of the adversary. The error will of course be detected when it is found that there are only seven cards in the talon. If the non-dealer elects to have the deal stand, the error in the player’s hand must be remedied in the discard, as will presently be described, and the stock must be divided 4-3 or 5-2, according to which player has too many cards. _=Carte Blanche.=_ The cards dealt, each player takes up his twelve cards and sorts them into suits. If the pone finds himself without a K Q or J, he should immediately claim 10 points for carte blanche. If the dealer holds carte blanche, he does not declare it until the pone has discarded. _=DISCARDING.=_ The five cards on the top of the talon belong to the pone, and he may discard from his hand any number of cards from one to five, and replace them by an equal number from the top of the stock. He must take at least one card, and he must take from the talon in the natural order of the cards.
_=1.=_ If the men are wrongly set up, the mistake may be remedied if the player in error has not moved a man, otherwise they must stand as set up. _=2.=_ If a player begins with less than the proper number of men, the error cannot be rectified after the player has made a throw for his move. _=3.=_ The players must each cast a single die for the privilege of first move, the higher winning. Ties throw again. _=4.=_ By mutual consent it may be agreed to let the higher throw play the points on his own and his adversary’s die for the first move; otherwise he must throw again with two dice. _=5.
He announces: “Twenty-one, with a run of five,” and pegs five holes more. The dealer plays a 3, also claiming a run of five, which he pegs, and as that is the last card to be played in that hand he also pegs one hole for _=last card=_. The total score of the dealer is now 10 points, and that of the pone is 15. The cards they held, and the order in which they were played is as follows:-- [Illustration: Pone:-- 🂤 🃃 🃕 🃔 Dealer:-- 🃂 🂱 🂲 🃓 ] _=SHOWING.=_ In order to illustrate the manner of counting the hands, which is called showing, let us suppose the starter to be a Queen, and that the pone discarded an Ace and a Ten for the crib, the dealer laying out two Jacks. The non-dealer always has the first show, as an offset to the advantage of the dealer’s crib. The pone therefore shows his hand, which, combined with the starter, is as follows:-- [Illustration: 🂭 🃃 🂤 🃔 🃕 ] This is worth 10 holes; the run of three with one duplicate is always worth 8, and the fifteen formed by the starter and the Five counts 2 more. This puts the pone’s total score to 25 points. The dealer then counts, showing his hand first. This, with the starter, is as follows:-- [Illustration: 🂭 🂱 🂲 🃂 🃓 ] This is worth 14 holes.
Here stands a Young Man I. Here stands a young man who wants a sweetheart, With all his merry maids round him; He may choose from east, he may choose from west, He may choose the prettiest girl that he loves best. Now this young couple is married together, We propose they kiss each other. --Glapthorn (_Northants Notes and Queries_, i. 214, A. Palmer). II. Here stands a young lady [lass] who wants a sweetheart, Wants a sweetheart, wants a sweetheart, And don t know where to find one, find one, find one. Choose the prettiest that you loves best. Now you re married I wish you joy, First a girl and then a boy, Seven years after son and daughter, Pray you come to kiss together.
| -- | | 42.| -- | | 43.| -- | | 44.| -- | | 45.| -- | | 46.| -- | +----+----------------------+ (_e_) Henderson, in describing the curious rites accompanying the saining or blessing of a corpse in the Scottish Lowlands, states that empty dishes are arranged on the hearth as near as possible to the fire, and after certain ceremonies in connection therewith have been performed, the company join hands and dance round the dishes, singing this burden:-- A dis, a dis, a dis, A green griss; A dis, a dis, a dis. --_Folk-lore of Northern Counties_, p. 54. This rhyme is, it will be seen, the same as the first two lines of the game, the word griss in the burial-rhyme becoming grass in the game-rhyme, grisse being the old form for grass or herb (Halliwell, _Provincial Glossary_, quotes a MS. authority for this).
_=METHOD OF PLAYING.=_ If a proposal is accepted, and no one over-calls it, the proposer and acceptor are partners; but make no change in their positions at the table. The eldest hand, sitting to the left of the dealer, begins by leading any card he pleases, and the play proceeds exactly as at Whist, the tricks being so stacked that they may be readily counted at any time. If a single player has called solo, misère, or abundance, the eldest hand still has the original lead, and there is no change in the positions of the players. The position of the lead is often a serious consideration with a player calling a solo or a misère. In all calls except misères and slams, the hands must be played out, in order to give each side an opportunity to make all the over-tricks they can. The moment a misère player takes a trick, or a slam player loses one, the hands are thrown up, and the stakes paid. When a spread is called, the trump is taken up, and the eldest hand leads. As soon as all have played to the first trick, the caller spreads his remaining twelve cards face upward on the table, so that each of his adversaries may see them; but they have no control of the order in which they shall be played. The adversaries play their hands in the usual manner, with no further guidance than that possible by inference from the play and the exposed hand.
55) prints words and tune of a song which is very similar to that ballad, and he mentions the fact that he has seen it played as a round by the Arabs of the street. He considers it to be an old English song which has been fitted for a ring game by the addition of a verse. See Lady on Yonder Hill. Lady on Yonder Hill I. Yonder stands a lovely lady, Whom she be I do not know; I ll go court her for my beauty, Whether she say me yea or nay. Madam, to thee I humbly bow and bend. Sir, I take thee not to be my friend. Oh, if the good fairy doesn t come I shall die. --Derbyshire (_Folk-lore Journal_, i. 387).
The hearts taken in are then counted as usual. Thirty-one points is game, and the winner is the player who has the least hearts scored when some other player reaches thirty-one. SUGGESTIONS FOR GOOD PLAY. A good player, after sorting his hand, carefully estimates its possibilities. The hand may be such that it is evidently impossible to avoid taking some hearts. The player must then decide whether he will play to give each of the others hearts, or will take them all himself. If he succeeds in either object he has a chance to win back his money in the ensuing Jack. In deciding on his chances to get clear without taking a single heart, the player must first consider the advisability of beginning with a heart, or with a plain suit. If hearts, he should know the probability of the heart he leads not winning the trick; if a plain suit, he should know the probability of the suit going round one or more times without hearts being discarded on it, especially if he intends to lead high cards. These chances must then be balanced one against the other and the more favourable selected.
Johnson professes that he knew no more of it than that it was some rustic game. Another commentator speaks of it as common among shepherds boys in some parts of Warwickshire. It cannot well be more common there than here, and it is not particularly rustic. Shepherds boys and other clowns play it on the green turf, or on the bare ground; cutting or scratching the lines, on the one or the other. In either case it is soon filled up with mud in wet weather. In towns, porters and other labourers play it, at their leisure hours, on the flat pavement, tracing the figure with chalk. It is also a domestic game; and the figure is to be found on the back of some draught-boards. But to compare _morris_ with that game, or with chess, seems absurd; as it has a very distant resemblance, if any at all, to either, in the lines, or in the rules of playing. On the ground, the men are pebbles, broken tiles, shells, or potsherds; on a table, the same as are used at draughts or backgammon. In Nares it is said to be the same as nine-holes.
_Reprinted and Copyrighted, 1913, by permission of The Whist Club of New York._ THE RUBBER. 1. The partners first winning two games win the rubber. When the first two games decide the rubber, a third is not played. SCORING. 2. Each side has a trick score and a score for all other counts, generally known as the honour score. In the trick score the only entries made are points for tricks won (see Law 3), which count both toward the game and in the total of the rubber. All other points, including honours, penalties, slam, little slam, and under-tricks, are recorded in the honour score, which counts only in the total of the rubber.
IX. London Bridge is broken down, Broken down, broken down, London Bridge is broken down, My fair lady. [Other verses commence with one of the following lines, and are sung in the same manner--] Build it up with penny loaves. Penny loaves will melt away. Build it up with iron and steel. Iron and steel will bend and bow. Build it up with silver and gold. Silver and gold I have not got. What has this poor prisoner done? Stole my watch and broke my chain. How many pounds will set him free? Three hundred pounds will set him free.
If it remains stationary and mounted and the enemy charges, one charging sabre will kill five stationary sabres and put fifteen others three feet to the rear. Dismounted cavalry charged is equivalent to infantry in extended order. If cavalry charges cavalry and the numbers are equal and the ground level, the result must be decided by the toss of a coin; the loser losing three-quarters of his men and obliged to retire, the winner losing one-quarter of his men. If the numbers are unequal, the melee rules for Little Wars obtain if the ground is level. If the ground slopes, the cavalry charging downhill will be multiplied according to the number of contours crossed. If it is one contour, it must be multiplied by two; two contours, multiplied by three; three contours, multiplied by four. If cavalry retires before cavalry instead of accepting a charge, it must continue to retire so long as it is pursued--the pursuers can only be arrested by fresh cavalry or by infantry or artillery fire. If driven off the field or into an unfordable river, the retreating body is destroyed. If infantry find hostile cavalry within charging distance at the end of the enemy s move, and this infantry retires and yet is still within charging distance, it will receive double losses if in extended order if charged; and if in two ranks or in fours, will lose at three feet two men for each charging sabre; at two feet, three men for each charging sabre. The cavalry in these circumstances will lose nothing.
The Mother replies, Put your head in; the Guardian says, It s all over hairs; the Mother says, Put the dish-clout in; the Guardian says, It s greasy; the Mother says, Get a fork; the Guardian says, It s rusty; the Mother says, I ll come mysen. She comes, and begins to count the children, Monday, Tuesday, up to Saturday, and missing Sunday, asks, Where s Sunday? the Guardian says, T old Witch has fetched her. The Mother answers, Where was you? Up stairs. The Mother says, What doing? Making t beds. Why didn t you come down? Because I had no shoes. Why didn t you borrow a pair? Because nobody would lend me a pair. Why didn t you steal a pair? Do you want me to get hung? Then the Mother runs after her, and if she can catch her thrashes her for letting Sunday go. Then the Mother pretends to go out washing again, and the Witch fetches the other days of the week one by one, when the same dialogue is rehearsed.--Dronfield, Derbyshire (S. O.
The Bros, it should be stated, occupied the high ground of the parish. They were nicknamed Paddy Bros, from a tradition that they were descendants from Irish people who settled on the hills in days long gone by. The Blaenaus occupied the lowlands, and, it may be presumed, were pure-bred Brythons. The more devout of the Bros and Blaenaus joined in the service at the parish church on Christmas morning. At any rate, the match did not begin until about mid-day, when the service was finished. Then the whole of the Bros and Blaenaus, rich and poor, male and female, assembled on the turnpike road which divided the highlands from the lowlands. The ball having been redeemed from the Crydd, it was thrown high in the air by a strong man, and when it fell Bros and Blaenaus scrambled for its possession, and a quarter of an hour frequently elapsed before the ball was got out from among the struggling heap of human beings. Then if the Bros, by hook or by crook, could succeed in taking the ball up the mountain to their hamlet of Rhyddlan they won the day; while the Blaenaus were successful if they got the ball to their end of the parish at New Court. The whole parish was the field of operations, and sometimes it would be dark before either party scored a victory. In the meantime many kicks would be given and taken, so that on the following day some of the competitors would be unable to walk, and sometimes a kick on the shins would lead the two men concerned to abandon the game until they had decided which was the better pugilist.
For instance: Hearts trumps-- 1 [Illustration: 🂷 🃛 🃝 🃞 🂧] 44,724 to 21,056. If the dealer does not hold two trumps, it is impossible to prevent the player from winning the point with these cards; because he need only lead his winning sequence until it is trumped, and then trump himself in again. With this hand the player will win 44,724 times out of 65,780. There are about twenty hands which are generally known as jeux de règle, and every écarté player should be familiar with them. In the following examples the weakest hands are given, and the trumps are always the smallest possible. If the player has more strength in plain suits than is shown in these examples, or higher trumps, there is so much more reason for him to stand. But if he has not the strength indicated in plain suits, he should propose, even if his trumps are higher, because it must be remembered that strong trumps do not compensate for weakness in plain suits. The reason for this is that from stand hands trumps should never be led unless there are three of them; they are to be kept for ruffing, and when you have to ruff it does not matter whether you use a seven or a Queen. The King of trumps is of course led; but a player does not stand on a hand containing the King. The first suit given is always the trump, and the next suit is always the one that should be led, beginning with the best card of it if there is more than one.
8--Battle of Hook s Farm. The Red Army suffers Heavy Loss.] [Illustration: Fig. 9--Battle of Hook s Farm. Complete Victory of the Blue Army.] Blue then pounds Red s right with his gun to the right of the farm and kills three men. He extends his other gun to the left of the farm, right out among the trees, so as to get an effective fire next time upon the tail of Red s gun. He also moves up sufficient men to take possession of Red s lost gun. On the right Blue s gun engages Red s and kills one man. All this the reader will see clearly in figure 9, and he will also note a second batch of Red prisoners--this time they are infantry, going rearward.