At this period (early part of the eighteenth century) there was a mania for card playing in all parts of Europe, and in all classes of society, but Whist had not as yet found favour in the highest circles. Piquet, Ombre, and Quadrille, were the principal games of the fashionable world. But about 1728, the game of Whist rose out of its comparative obscurity.
A party of gentlemen (according to Daines Barrington), of whom the first Lord Folkestone was one, used at this date to frequent the Crown Coffee-house, in Bedford Row, where they studied Whist scientifically. They must have made considerable progress in the game, to judge by the following rules which they laid down:—"Lead from the strong suit; study your partner's hand; and attend to the score."
Shortly after this, the celebrated Edmond Hoyle, the father of the game, published his "Short Treatise" (1742-3). About Hoyle's antecedents, but little is known. He was born in 1672; it is said he was educated for the bar. It has been stated that he was born in Yorkshire, but this is doubtful. At all events, the author, by personal enquiry, has positively ascertained that he did not belong to the family of Yorkshire Hoyles, who acquired estates near Halifax temp. Edward III. It has also been stated that Hoyle was appointed registrar of the prerogative court at Dublin, in 1742. This, however, is unlikely. At that time, Hoyle was engaged in writing on games, and in giving lessons in Whist, and he was probably living in London. At all events, the only known genuine copy of the first edition of the "Short Treatise" (in the Bodleian), was published in London; and Hoyle afterwards resided in Queen Square. The name Edmund or Edmond is common in both the Yorkshire and Irish families of Hoyle; and probably one Hoyle has been mistaken for another.
Internal evidence shows that Hoyle originally drew up notes for the use of his pupils. His early editions speak of "Purchasers of the Treatise in Manuscript, disposed of the last Winter," and further state that the author of it "has fram'd an Artificial Memory, which takes not off your Attention from your Game; and if required, he is ready to communicate it, upon Payment of one Guinea. And also, he will explain any Cases in the Book, upon Payment of one Guinea more." The cheap spurious editions lament that there was "a Treatise on the Game of Whist lately dispersed among a few Hands at a Guinea Price;" that it was to be procured with no small difficulty; and that the public lay under imposition and hardship in not being able to get the book under a guinea, and by its being reserved only in a few hands.
No doubt, the circulation of these surreptitious copies induced Hoyle to print the manuscript, and to register the "Short Treatise" at Stationers' Hall in November, 1742.
The treatise ran through five editions in one year, and it is said that Hoyle received a large sum for the copyright. This last statement, however, requires verification; at all events, Hoyle continued for years to sign every copy personally, as the proprietor of the copyright. This was done in order to protect the property from further piracy, as the address to the reader shows.
The following is a facsimile of Hoyle's signature, taken from the fourth edition:—
In the fifteenth edition the signature is impressed from a wood block, and in the seventeenth it was announced that Mr. Hoyle was dead. He died in Welbank (Welbeck) Street, Cavendish Square, in August, 1769, aged 97.
One effect of Hoyle's publication was to draw forth a witty skit, entitled "The Humours of Whist. A Dramatic Satire, as Acted every Day at White's and other Coffee-Houses and Assemblies." (1743). The pamphlet commences with an advertisement mimicking Hoyle's address to the reader. The prologue to the play is "supposed to be spoke by a waiter at White's."