Cassell's Book of In-door Amusements, Card Games, and Fireside Fun

by Various

The cubes are then to be thrown by the players alternately, their order having been previously arranged, it being always allowed, however, that the possessors of cards take precedence over the other players, and over each other, according to the relative values of their cards. It should be stated rather that each player alternately is entitled to a throw of the cubes or dice, for any player is at liberty to sell his throw to any other player inclined to speculate therein. When the cubes are thrown and show uppermost all blanks, all the players have to pay one counter each to the holder of the white horse, and he again pays one to the holder of the inn. If the cubes turn up with the bell or the hammer, or with the bell and the hammer, the holder or holders of these cards pay one counter to the white horse. When the bell, hammer, or bell and hammer are thrown accompanied with numbers, the amount of the numbers thrown has to be paid in counters to the holder or holders of the cards out of the pool; if numbers are thrown unaccompanied with either bell or hammer, or bell and hammer, the thrower of the cubes receives from pool the number of counters indicated by the cubes.

It is when the pool is becoming exhausted that advantages accrue to the holder of the inn, and this indeed is usually found to be a very speculative holding. If any player in his throw shows numbers combined greater than the number of counters remaining in the pool, he receives nothing from pool, but pays to the holder of the inn the difference between the number of counters remaining and the number indicated by the cubes; for example, if five counters are remaining in pool, and seven are shown uppermost on the thrown cubes, the player who threw the cubes pays two counters to the holder of the inn, and leaves the five counters in the pool. So on the play proceeds, until some figure is thrown which, clearing the pool, concludes the game.

After the holder of the inn card begins to receive payment, should all blanks be thrown, the players throwing the cubes pay nothing; but instead, the holder of the white horse pays one counter to the holder of the inn; should the bell or hammer, or bell and hammer be thrown with the blanks, the holder or holders of the card or cards indicated each pays one to the holder of the inn. If numbers are thrown accompanying the bell, &c., the holder of that card pays to the inn the number thrown in excess of the number of counters remaining in the pool.

SHOVEL BOARD.

The game of Shovel Board was once a very important national pastime, and was much played among fashionable people. Master Slender, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," makes a reference to the game, from which it would appear that Shovel Board was in Shakspere's time both popular and fashionable.

The game was formerly played upon a long, low table that usually stood in the large hall of a gentleman's house, but was soon adapted to smaller tables, and was indeed frequently played on the floor, the necessary limits being chalked out on the bricks. The following description of the game will be found applicable, whether it be played on the floor or on the orthodox table or board, it being premised that the space marked out on the floor should be about twenty-five or thirty feet in length and three feet in breadth, a space corresponding with the size of an ancient Shovel Board.

The tables on which the game is now played vary somewhat in length, but are usually three feet to three and a half feet wide. At one end of the table a line is drawn parallel with the edge, and three or four inches from it; at four feet distance another line is made over which it is necessary for the weight to pass when shoved or thrown. The players stand at the end of the table, opposite to the two lines above mentioned, each having four flat metal weights, which they alternately shove from them one at a time. The object of the play is to give sufficient impetus to the weight to carry it beyond the mark nearest to the opposite edge of the table, but so as to keep it on the table. If the weight is shoved so that it hangs over the edge without falling, three are counted towards game; if between the line and edge, without hanging over, two are scored; if on the line one only is credited to the player. The game is usually eleven when two play, but when more than two are jointly concerned that number should be increased.

Shovel Board.

Those weights that glance off the side of the table, that do not pass the first line, or that fall off the table at the opposite edge, it will be seen do not score. It is sometimes allowed that all weights passing the first, or four-foot line, score one, instead of making it incumbent that the second line should be reached.