Tunes have also been sent from Tean, North Staffs. (Miss Keary), and Epworth, Doncaster (Mr. C. C. Bell), which are nearly identical with the Leicester tune; from Market Drayton (Miss Burne), similar to the Derbyshire tune; from Monton, Lancashire (Miss Dendy), which appears to be only the latter part of the tune, and is similar to those given above. The tune given by Rimbault is not the same as those collected above, though there is a certain similarity. The editor of _Northamptonshire Notes and Queries_, vol. i. p. 214, says, Some readers will remember that Byngo is the name of the Franklyn s dogge that Ingoldsby introduces into a few lines described as a portion of a primitive ballad, which has escaped the researches of Ritson and Ellis, but is yet replete with beauties of no common order.
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.=_ In calculating his chances for success in winning a certain number of tricks, the player will often have to take into consideration the probability of certain cards being out against him. This will vary according to the number of players engaged. For instance: If four are playing, and the bidder holds K Q of a plain suit, the odds against the ace of that suit being out against him are about 2 to 1. As it would be impossible for any person to remember all the jeux de règle for three tricks at Napoleon, each must learn from experience the trick-taking value of certain hands. Trump strength is, of course, the great factor, and the bidder should count on finding at least two trumps in one hand against him. Nap should never be bid on a hand which is not pretty sure of winning two rounds of trumps, with all other cards but one winners. One trick may always be risked in a nap hand, such as A Q of trumps, or a King, or even a Queen or Jack in a plain suit; the odds against the adversaries having a better card being slightly increased by the odds against their knowing enough to keep it for the last trick. If the bid is for three tricks only, tenaces, or guarded minor honours in plain suits should be preserved.
Prov._) says that nine round holes are made in the ground, and a ball aimed at them from a certain distance. A second game is played with a board having nine holes, through one of which the ball must pass. Nares quotes several authors to show the antiquity of the game. He shows that the Nine Men s Morris of our ancestors was but another name for Nine Holes. Nine, a favourite and mysterious number everywhere, prevails in games. Strutt (_Sports_, p. 384) also describes the game as played in two ways--a game with bowling marbles at a wooden bridge; and another game, also with marbles, in which four, five, or six holes, and sometimes more, are made in the ground at a distance from each other, and the business of every one of the players is to bowl a marble, by a regular succession, into all the holes, and he who completes in the fewest bowls obtains the victory. In Northamptonshire a game called Nine Holes, or Trunks, is played with a long piece of wood or bridge with nine arches cut in it, each arch being marked with a figure over it, from one to nine, in the following rotation--VII., V.
| -- | -- | -- | | 37.| -- | -- |We ll all clap hands | | | | |together. | | 38.| -- | -- | -- | | 39.| -- | -- | -- | | 40.| -- | -- | -- | | 41.| -- | -- | -- | | 42.| -- | -- | -- | | 43.|Naughty miss, she |Naughty old maid, she | -- | | |won t come out. |won t come out.
_=Dix.=_ Each player in turn, beginning on the dealer’s left, may show the Nine of trumps if he holds it, and exchange it for the trump card. Should two Nines be shown by different players, the one on the dealer’s left takes the turn-up trump. Even if the dealer has a Nine himself, he is not allowed to keep the turn-up trump. If the same player holds both Nines he may score twenty on winning a trick. A player with 990 up is not out if he turns up the Nine. He must win a trick. _=Melds.=_ All the combinations have the same value as in the ordinary game, but all melds are laid upon the table before a card is played. When he lays down his cards, a player may make as many combinations with them as he can, just as he would in the ordinary game if he had plenty of time.