ANCIENT AND MODERN GAMES, FIELD SPORTS, AND OTHER

AMUSEMENTS.

PLAYING CARDS.

Playing cards are said to have been invented in China in the reign of Leun-ho (1120), and were common in 1131. As early as 1463 there were card-makers in this country, the importation of playing cards having been prohibited by Act of Parliament in that year, as injurious to the interests of native manufacturers. Edward Darcy obtained a patent for the manufacture of them at the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who, as well as her sister Mary, was partial to card-playing. The importation of them was prohibited after the 20th July 1615, during the reign of James I.," as the art of making them was then brought to perfection in this country." The Company of Card-makers was first incorporated by letters patent of Charles I. in 1629. From the Restoration to the reign of Queen Anne, card-playing attained its full tide of popularity throughout England. Ombre was the favourite game for the ladies, and piquet for gentlemen; clergymen and country squires played whist, and the commoners played at all-fours, put, cribbage, and contraloo. At no other time, before or since, was card-playing so prevalent. The good old English landlord used to send a string of hogs' puddings and a pack of cards, as a Christmas gift, to every poor family in the parish. No person is allowed to manufacture playing cards in this country, except in the cities of London, Westminster, and in the city of Dublin in Ireland. Their manufacture is prohibited in Scotland. The duty is upwards of two hundred per cent. on the cost of manufacture, besides the duty on paper, which amounts to about 6d, on a dozen packs. The duty and export aces are printed at Somerset House on paper furnished by the cardmakers, who have also to pay £30 for every ace plate. An officer is sent round to the different card-makers with seals, one of which is affixed to each pack required for immediate sale: the amount of duty of 18. per pack must be paid on the 1st of each month.

GAME OF WHIST.

Playing cards have been termed by the rigid moralist the Devil's Books! No doubt the misuse of them has been creative of much misery and mischief. As an amusement, however, they have cheered the captive, enlivened the sick-room, and have given life and buoyancy to the domestic circle. The Christmas holidays are plentifully supplied with round games for the diversion of the young, while the old grandmothers are deeply interested in

This

the pegs of a cribbage-board by a chimney corner. All-fours belong to the grocer's back parlour; cassino to the drawingroom; while sober whist is the everyday and every other-body's amusement who understand, or even misunderstand it. game is of Spanish origin, and was first introduced into this country at the marriage of Philip II. and Mary. The name carries with it its own derivation, being a game that requires a strict silence; for, as its requisite is a nice calculation, and an undisturbed memory, so the least talking or disturbance distracts the attention, and consequently produces bad play, and to those whose memories are the weakest, the loss of the game.-Hence it has been termed whist; i. e., be silent.

POPE JOAN.

The Pope Joan Board makes its appearance on Christmas Eve, and continues for some time after to amuse the domestic circle, old and young. But what the origin of the term is, few it is presumed know; it therefore is here given.

Pope Joan was called John VIII. Platina saith, she was of English extraction, but born at Mentz; who, having disguised herself like a man, travelled with her paramour to Athens, where she made such progress in learning, that coming to Rome, she met with few that could equal her, so that on the death of Pope Leo IV. she was chosen to succeed him; but being got with child by one of her domestics, her travail came upon her between the Colossian Theatre and St. Clement's, as she was going to the Lateran church, and died upon the place, having sat two years, one month, and four days, and was buried there without any pomp. He owns, that for shame of this the popes decline going through this street to the Lateran; and that to avoid the like error, when any pope is placed in the Porphyry chair, his genitals are felt by the youngest deacon, through a hole made for that purpose; but he supposes the reason of that to be, to put him in mind that he is a man, and obnoxious to the necessities of nature; and he calls the seat, Sedes Stercoraria.

That Papissa Joanna, however, is merely a fictitious character is now universally acknowledged. Gibbon rejects her history as fabulous; and she has been annihilated by two learned Protestants, Blondel and Bayle. Spanheim and L'Enfant attempted to save this poor engine of controversy; and even Mosheim condescends to cherish some doubts and suspicion of her existence.

GAME OF CHESS.

The etymology of the word Chess, is, like the origin of the game, somewhat uncertain; but its whole composition proves its Asiatic origin. In Sanscrit it is called schthrantsh, a word which

is believed to indicate the most important and component parts of an eastern army, elephants, infantry, horses, &c. But this name was supplanted by the Persian word Shah (king), which the game has retained, more or less corrupted in all languages. The Italians call it scacchi; the Germans, schachspie, and the French, echecs, from some of which we may have taken our word check. The pawn seems to have been evidently so called after the peon, while the rook, though more generally termed a castle, took its name from the Persian rukh, which is the corresponding piece; and it is remarkable that, in all the languages here enumerated, the word mat or mate is preserved, and a term is used corresponding with the schahmat of the Persians.

BACKGAMMON.

Of this game we have no clue to its origin; at any rate, we can give our readers the derivation of the term. The word is of Welsh origin, from back, little, and cammawn, battle, from which comes Backgammon.

ARCHERY.

"And thou, peculiar weapon of our land,
Graceful, yet sturdy bow."

The use of the bow may be traced to the remotest antiquity. The first notice which we find of it is in Genesis (xxi. 20), where it is said that Ishmael became an archer. It was first introduced into England in the reign of Egbert the Saxon, but was not, however, used as a martial weapon until the reign of Edward I. The period at which the long bow had attained its meridian fame, may be fixed in the reign of Henry V., whose archers destroyed the whole French cavalry, clothed in complete steel, with their yard long arrows. At the battle of Flodden-field, likewise, the English archers made sad havoc. As to the amusement, the bow was extremely fashionable in the reign of Henry VIII.; and Holinshed reports, that the prince shot as well as any of his guard. After the siege of Devizes, in the civil wars, 1647, the bow, as a military weapon, was entirely laid aside. During the reigns of Charles II. and James II., the amusement was continued, and the Artillery Company, originally the Finsbury Archers, then so celebrated, has survived to the present time; but with the exception of this Company, till within these last fifty years the bow was scarcely known. It derived its name of archery from the bow being, when drawn, in the shape of an arch.

MORRIS DANCE,

The origin of the dance is uniformly given to the Moors. The fandango of Spain, danced to the present day, is the old Moorish

or Morris Dance. It is supposed to have been first brought to England in the time of Edward III., when John of Gaunt returned from Spain.

FIVES AND FIVES' COURTS.

"Tost and retost, the ball incessant flies."

A game so called, because when first played, in the reign of Elizabeth, there were five competitors in it; and not, as generally supposed, from the hand, which strikes the ball, consisting of four fingers and a thumb, vulgarly called a "bunch of fives."

The place so celebrated in the annals of pugilism, derives its name from the circumstance of its being once equally famed for the game of Fives.

GAME OF RACKETS.

The French palm-play, consisted in receiving the ball, and driving it back again with the palm of the hand, similar to our game of Fives. Anciently they played Rackets with their naked hand, then with a glove, which in some instances was lined; afterwards they bound cords and tendons round their hands, to make the ball rebound more forcibly; and hence, says St. Foix, the Racket derived its origin.

DANCING,

"Hail, loveliest art! thou canst all hearts insnare,
And make the fairest still appear more fair,

Hence with her sister arts shall dancing claim

An equal right to universal fame;

And Isaac's rigadoon shall live as long

As Raphael's painting, or as Virgil's song."-Jenyns.

Dancing, applied to harmonize the motions of the body, to teach an easy gesture, and a graceful attitude, is highly useful, and the poet's numbers have thus been attuned to its eulogy.

To trace the origin of dancing would be a difficult task. That it was used by the Jews in their religious rites, there can be no question of; for we are informed that "David danced before the Lord with all his might, until his linen ephod came off." It passed from the religious ceremonies of the Jews to the Egyptians, and afterwards to the Greeks and Romans, with whom it was a principal part of the worship of their gods. It was afterwards adopted in many Pagan nations; and Christians ultimately, in Popish countries, celebrated certain festivals, particularly the Sacrament of the Passion of our Lord, with dancing. Socrates learned to dance at an advanced time of life; it is no wonder, therefore, that such honourable mention is made of dancing by his disciples, Plato and Xenophon. The people of Sparta and Crete went to the attack dancing. On the other hand, Cicero reproaches