Coeval with gleek we find Mount Saint, or more properly Cent, in Spanish Cientos, or hundred, the number of points that win the game. Thus in a play by Lewis Machin, called the Dumb Knight, the third edition printed in 1608, the queen says of this game, "the name is taken from hundreds;" and afterwards to Philocles, "you are a double game, and I am no less; there is an hundred, and all cards made but one knave." [978] Mount Saint was played by counting, and probably did not differ much from Picquet, or picket, as it was formerly written, which is said to have been played with counters, and to have been introduced in France about the middle of the seventeenth century. Picket is mentioned in Flora's Vagaries, printed in 1670.
New Cut is mentioned in A Woman killed with Kindness, a play written by Thomas Heywood, third edition, 1617, where one of the characters says, "if you will play at new cut, I am soonest hitter of any one heere for a wager."
Knave out of Doors occurs also in the same play, together with Ruff, which is proposed to be played with honours; double ruff, and English ruff, with honours, are mentioned in the Complete Gamester, published in 1674, and is distinguished from French ruff.
Lansquenet is a French game, and took its name from the Lansquenets, or light German troops, employed by the kings of France in the fifteenth century. [979]
Basset, said by Dr. Johnson to have been invented at Venice, was a very fashionable game towards the close of the seventeenth century.
Ombre was brought into England by Catherine of Portugal, queen to Charles II.
Quadrille, a modern game, bears great analogy to ombre, with the addition of a fourth player, which is certainly a great improvement.
Whist, or as it was formerly written, whisk, is a game now held in high estimation. At the commencement of last century, according to Swift, it was a favourite pastime with clergymen, who played the game with swabbers; these were certain cards by which the holder was entitled to part of the stake, in the same manner that the claim is made for the aces at quadrille. Whist, in its present state of improvement, may properly be considered as a modern game, and was not, says the hon. Daines Barrington, played upon principles till about fifty years ago, when it was much studied by a set of gentlemen who frequented the Crown coffee-house in Bedford-row. Mr. Barrington's paper on card-playing in the Archæologia, was published in 1787, and the author says that the first mention he finds of the game of whist is in the Beaux Stratagem, a comedy by Geo. Farquhar, pub. A. D. 1707. He also thinks that whist might have originated from the old game of trump. Cotgrave explains the French word triomphe in this manner; the game called ruff, or trump; also the ruff, or trump in it.
To the games already mentioned we may add the following: Put, and the High Game; Plain Dealing, Wit and Reason, Costly Colours, Five Cards, Bone Ace, [980] Queen Nazareen, Lanterloo, Penneech, Art of Memory, Beast, Cribbage, and All Fours. Nearly all these games may be found in a small book entitled the Complete Gamester, with the directions how to play them. Crimp, mentioned in the Spectator, [981] I take to be a game played with the cards, and one might be led to think the same of Roulet by the wording of the act 18 Geo. II. by which it is prohibited. The words are, "And whereas a certain pernicious game, called Roulet, or Roly-poly, is daily practised," the act then directs "that no place shall be kept for playing at the said game of roulet, or roly-poly, or any other game with cards or dice," &c.