Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com
Ah, Cribbage, the prince of card-games!
Like many deceptively simple games, it takes 20 minutes to learn, and a life-time to perfect!
That “15-two, 15-four” game, originating in the UK, it has travelled well to all corners of the world and is particularly popular here on the West Coast of Canada among loggers and lawyers alike.
Played by two, three or four people (the latter as two partners) it utilizes the distinctive pegboard of 121 holes which records the scores of the contestants as they pair or “run” the cards, or arrange them into combinations totalling 15.
The game lends itself ideally to wagering, either as a set amount per game, or by a small amount per peg-hole, which can often add up to a lot more!
It has always amused me over the years to meet hard-boiled gamblers who make their living at poker or blackjack, privately confessing that “Crib” is really their favourite game.
My fellow crib-cronies are going to be tickled pink that our beloved game has been given such an impressive pedigree by this mention in the Diary!
Anybody unfamiliar with the game can get a pretty good idea of it from this website: http://www.pagat.com/adders/crib6.html
Repost of information about cribbage posted to the entry of 15th May 1660
Re cribbage L&M has
Sir John Suckling
http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/suckling/sjsbio.htm
Sir John Suckling..rules of the game etc..
http://www.cribbage.org/hof/member.asp?hof_id=1
Some history on the playing cards.
http://www.wopc.co.uk/uk/index2.html
additional pointers : more: interesting history of card designs
http://i-p-c-s.org/history.html
http://thehouseofcards.com/card_history.html
http://www.wopc.co.uk/history/page_10.html
more info:
http://gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/vexhibit/plcards/plcards.html
Game of gleek
http://www.pagat.com/pointtrk/gleek.html
gives brief information on the game which Sam is playing with his wife and Aunt Wright on Monday 13 January 1661/62.
This page
http://www.davidparlett.co.uk/histocs/gleek.html
gives more information and some charming names for the cards:
“If the turn-up is a Four (Tiddy), the dealer receives 4p from each opponent - or, similarly, 5 for the Five (Towser) or 6 for the Six (Tumbler), but only by prior agreement.”
Trumps are mentioned, but a good deal of the game and the betting and bluffing involved sounds like poker. A page of a near-contemporary manual (The Compleat Gamester, 1674) is shown, where it declares that the game must only have three players, as we see happening here in the Pepys family.
More about Gleek
A charming description in psuedo Elizabethan-style English…
“On the Englyshe Game of Gleeke”
http://jducoeur.org/game-hist/ace_gleek.txt
What is the official U K definition of a sequence? Here in Canada I’m running into the following J,9,10 or 4,6,5 being considered sequences.
Thanx