See Brand, Antiquities of Great Britain (Hazlitt's ed., 1905); Rev J. Edward Vaux, Church Folklore (1894).
BRIDEWELL, a district of London between Fleet Street and the Thames, so called from the well of St Bride or St Bridget close by. From William the Conqueror's time, a castle or Norman tower, long the occasional residence of the kings of England, stood there by the Fleet ditch. Henry VIII., Stow says, built there "a stately and beautiful house," specially for the housing of the emperor Charles V. and his suite in 1525. During the hearing of the divorce suit by the Cardinals at Blackfriars, Henry and Catharine of Aragon lived there. In 1553 Edward VI. made it over to the city as a penitentiary, a house of correction for vagabonds and loose women; and it was formally taken possession of by the lord mayor and corporation in 1555. The greater part of the building was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. New Bridewell, built in 1829, was pulled down in 1864. The term has become a synonym for any reformatory.
BRIDGE, a game of cards, developed out of the game of whist. The country of its origin is unknown. A similar game is said to have been played in Denmark in the middle of the 19th century. A game in all respects the same as bridge, except that in "no trumps" each trick counted ten instead of twelve, was played in England about 1884 under the name of Dutch whist. Some connect it with Turkey and Egypt under the name of "Khedive," or with a Russian game called "Yeralash." It was in Turkey that it first won a share of popular favour. Under the synonyms of "Biritch," "Bridge," or "Russian whist," it found its way to the London clubs about 1894, from which date its popularity rapidly increased.
Ordinary Bridge.—Bridge, in its ordinary form, differs from
whist in the following respects:—Although there are four players, yet in each hand the partner of the dealer takes no part in the play of that particular hand. After the first lead his cards are placed on the table exposed, and are played by the dealer as at dummy whist; nevertheless the dealer's partner is interested in the result of the hand equally with the dealer. The trump suit is not determined by the last card dealt, but is selected by the dealer or his partner without consultation, the former having the first option. It is further open to them to play without a trump suit. The value of tricks and honours varies with the suit declared as trumps. Honours are reckoned differently from whist, and on a scale which is somewhat involved. The score for honours does not count towards winning or losing the rubber, but is added afterwards to the trick score in order to determine the value of the rubber. There are also scores for holding no trumps ("chicane"), and for winning all the tricks or all but one ("slam").
The score has to be kept on paper. It is usual for the scoring block to have two vertical columns divided halfway by a horizontal line. The left column is for the scorers' side, and the right for the opponents'. Honours are scored above the horizontal line, and tricks below. The drawback to this arrangement is that, since the scores for each hand are not kept separately, it is generally impossible to trace an error in the score without going through the whole series of hands. A better plan, it seems, is to have four columns ruled, the inner two being assigned to tricks, the outer ones to honours. By this method a line can be reserved for each hand, and any discrepancy in the scores at once rectified.
The Portland Club, London, drew up a code of laws in 1895, and this code, with a few amendments, was in July 1895 adopted by a joint committee of the Turf and Portland Clubs. A revised code came into force in January 1905, the provisions of which are here summarized.
Each trick above 6 counts 2 points in a spade declaration, 4 in a club, 6 in a diamond, 8 in a heart, 12 in a no-trump declaration. The game consists of 30 points made by tricks alone. When one side has won two games the rubber is ended. The winners are entitled to add 100 points to their score. Honours consist of ace, king, queen, knave, ten, in a suit declaration. If a player and his partner conjointly hold 3 (or "simple") honours they score twice the value of a trick; if 4 honours, 4 times; if 5 honours, 5 times. If a player in his own hand hold 4 honours he is entitled to score 4 honours in addition to the score for conjoint honours; thus, if one player hold 4 honours and his partner the other their total score is 9 by honours. Similarly if a player hold 5 honours in his own hand he is entitled to score 10 by honours. If in a no-trump hand the partners conjointly hold 3 aces, they score 30 for honours; if 4 aces, 40 for honours. 4 aces in 1 hand count 100. On the same footing as the score for honours are the following: chicane, if a player hold no trump, in amount equal to simple honours; grand slam, if one side win all the tricks, 40 points; little slam, if they win 12 tricks, 20 points. At the end of the rubber the total scores, whether made by tricks, honours, chicane, slam, or rubber points, are added together, and the difference between the two totals is the number of points won.
At the opening of play, partners are arranged and the cards are shuffled, cut and dealt (the last card not being turned) as at whist; but the dealer cannot lose the deal by misdealing. After the deal is completed, the dealer makes the trump or no-trump (sans atout) declaration, or passes the choice to his partner without remark. If the dealer's partner make the declaration out of his turn, the adversary on the dealer's left may, without consultation, claim a fresh deal. If an adversary make a declaration, the dealer may claim a fresh deal or disregard the declaration. Then after the declaration, either adversary may double, the leader having first option. The effect of doubling is that each trick is worth twice as many points as before; but the scores for honours, chicane and slam are unaltered. If a declaration is doubled, the dealer and his partner have the right of redoubling, thus making each trick worth four times as much as at first. The declarer has the first option. The other side can again redouble, and so on; but the value of a trick is limited to 100 points. In the play of the hand the laws are nearly the same as the laws of whist, except that the dealer may expose his cards and lead out of turn without penalty; after the second hand has played, however, he can only correct this lead out of turn with the permission of the adversaries. Dummy cannot revoke. The dealer's partner may take no part in the play of the hand beyond guarding the dealer against revoking.
Advice to Players.—In the choice of a suit two objects are to be aimed at: first, to select the suit in which the combined forces have the best chance of making tricks; secondly, to select the trump so that the value of the suit agrees with the character of the hand, i.e. a suit of high value when the hands are strong and of low value when very weak. As the deal is a great advantage it generally happens that a high value is to be aimed at, but occasionally a low value is desirable. The task of selection should fall to the hand which has the most distinctive features, that is, either the longest suit or unusual strength or weakness. No consultation being allowed, the dealer must assume only an average amount of variation from the normal in his partner's hand. If his own hand has distinctive features beyond the average, he should name the trump suit himself, otherwise pass it to his partner. It may here be stated what is the average in these respects.