Edmond Hoyle's Short Treatise on the game of Whist was published on this date in 1742. It became the standard text and rules for the game for the next hundred years. 10 things you might not know about whist:
It appears to have evolved from a number of other card games prior to the 18th century, such as ruff, ruff and honours, whisk and swabbers, whisk, trump, honours, slamm and ruff. All these games are thought to have evolved from an Italian card game called Ronfa, now lost in the mists of time. Whist began, presumably, as another variation of this family of card games.
The name whist may come from an old English word meaning calm, quiet, and attentiveness, which was common in the 17th century. The modern word wistful comes from the same root.
In the 18th century, whist was seen as a game fit only for servants, country squires and hunting men, not at all suitable for people of quality or ladies.
Edmond Hoyle was a member of a group of men who met up in the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row, London, to play the game according to scientific principles. He began to teach wealthy young men how to play, which is no doubt why he wrote his book.
More than a century later, another whist writer emerged, one Henry Jones, aka "Cavendish", who in 1862 published a book with the snappy title of The Principles of Whist Stated and Explained, and Its Practice Illustrated on an Original System, by Means of Hands Played Completely Through which then became the standard text.
In the 19th century another game came along which rather eclipsed whist as the card game of choice in English society, namely, bridge.
Whist, however, remained popular as a social game and even today there are events known as whist drives, often held as fundraisers for charity in which players play 24 hands against different opponents.
The game is played with a standard 52 card deck. Each player is dealt 13 cards and the aim of the game is to win tricks. In the game’s early days the trump suit was determined by the next card turned over from the top of the pack after the hands were dealt, but more recently there is a cycle followed the trump suit cycles through hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs every four deals, or there is a five deal variation in which the fifth deal has no trumps at all.
Three of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories feature whist: The Adventure of the Empty House, Ronald Adair plays whist at one of his clubs shortly before he is murdered. In The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, Brenda Tregennis plays whist with her brothers shortly before she is murdered. In The Red-Headed League, the banker Mr. Merryweather complains that he is missing his regular game of whist in order to help Holmes catch a bank robber. Edgar Allan Poe briefly mentioned whist in his tale The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
Several characters in literature are whist players. One such is Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days, where he is described by Jules Verne thus: “His only pastime was reading the papers and playing whist. He frequently won at this quiet game, so very appropriate to his nature.” Charles Dickens’s Mr Pickwick and Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind are others. In more recent literature, Outlander author Diana Gabaldon describes a whist game between Jamie Fraser and Phylip Wylie.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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