The Project Gutenberg eBook, Hoyle's Games Modernized, Edited by Louis Hoffmann

Title: Hoyle's Games Modernized

Editor: Louis Hoffmann

Release Date: April 13, 2012 [eBook #39445]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOYLE'S GAMES MODERNIZED***

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HOYLE'S GAMES
MODERNIZED

EDITED BY

PROFESSOR HOFFMANN

New Edition (Reset)

THOROUGHLY REVISED TO 1909

With the addition of Chapters on Auction Bridge and Three other New Games

BY

ERNEST BERGHOLT

And with New Chapters on Roulette and Trente Et Quarante
by Captain BROWNING
("Slambo" of The Westminster Gazette)

WITH DIAGRAMS

LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
1909

PREFACE

To the present generation the name of Edmond Hoyle conveys but a vague meaning, though the phrase "according to Hoyle" is still now and then used as a synonym for correct play in a card-game.

Hoyle was in fact the "Cavendish" of his day, and was in many ways a man of special mark. He was born in 1672, and died in 1769, having outlived half-a-dozen monarchs. Of his earlier life little is known. He is said to have been called to the Bar, though whether he ever practised as an advocate is uncertain. In 1742 he was living in Queen's Square, and giving lessons in whist-play, which he was the first to reduce to a scientific method. He had up to that time communicated his system either personally, or in the form of manuscript, but in that year he for the first time published his memorable "Short Treatise on the Game of Whist." Of this first edition only two copies (one in the Bodleian Library) are known to exist. Its price was a guinea. It was freely pirated, and this fact was probably the reason that the succeeding editions, of which there were three published in 1743, were issued at the more modest price of two

shillings, each genuine copy being guaranteed by the autograph of the author. Other editions followed, several of which are only now represented by single copies. Of the seventh edition, published in 1747, no copy exists. The eighth (1748) embodied, in addition to the Whist manual, short treatises on Quadrille, Piquet, and Backgammon, which had in the meantime appeared separately. The book was from time to time further amplified, and the eleventh edition (precise date uncertain) is entitled "Mr. Hoyle's Games of Whist, Quadrille, Piquet, Chess and Backgammon Complete." The autograph signature to each copy was continued until Hoyle's death. In the fifteenth edition it is replaced by an impression from a wood block.

It is significant of the respect in which Hoyle was held, that his Laws of Whist, with some slight alterations by the habitués of White's and Saunders' chocolate-houses (the then headquarters of the game), were accepted as the final authority from 1760 till 1864, when the basis of the present code, settled by the Turf and Portland Clubs, was adopted in their stead.

Nothing would now be gained by reproducing Hoyle's original text. In the present volume no attempt is made to do so. Its teachings are, however, but the teachings of the master, amplified and brought up-to-date, and it is a fitting tribute to his memory that his name should be retained upon the title-page.

PREFACE
TO THE REVISED EDITION OF 1909

The articles on Whist and Bridge have been rewritten and brought thoroughly up-to-date. Those on Billiards, Pool, and Snooker Pool have been completely revised, and all the recent changes in Rules have been either incorporated or quoted. Entirely new chapters have been added on Auction Bridge, Five Hundred, Quinto, and Poker Patience.

For the articles specially written for this New Edition on Roulette and Trente et Quarante, the able pen of Captain Browning is responsible.

CONTENTS