Vinegar, s. Wine grown sour.
Vingt-un, s. A game.
Vingt-un, or twenty-one, very much resembles quinze; but may be played by two or more persons, and as the deal is advantageous, and often continues long with the same person, it is usual to determine it at the commencement by the first ace turned up.
The cards must all be dealt out in succession, unless a natural vingt-un occurs, and in the mean time the pone, or youngest-hand, should collect those that have been played, and shuffle them ready for the dealer against the period when he shall have distributed the whole pack. The dealer is first to give two cards, by one at a time to each player, including himself, then to ask every person in rotation, beginning with the eldest hand on the left, whether he stands or chooses another card, which, if required, must be given from off the top of the pack, and afterwards another, or more, if desired, till the points of the additional card or cards, added to those dealt, exceed or make twenty-one exactly, or such a number less than twenty-one, as may be judged proper to stand upon; but when the points exceed twenty-one, then the cards of that individual player are to be thrown up directly, and the stake to be paid to the dealer, who is also in turn entitled to draw additional cards, and on taking a vingt-un is to receive double stakes from all who stand the game, such other players excepted who may likewise have twenty-one, between whom it is thereby a drawn game: when any person has vingt-un, and the dealer not, he who has it wins double stakes of the dealer; in other cases, except a natural vingt-un happens, the dealer pays single stakes to all whose numbers under twenty-one are higher than his own, and receives from those who have lower numbers; but nothing is paid or received by such players as have similar numbers to the dealer: and when the dealer draws more than twenty-one, he is to pay to all who have not thrown up.
Twenty-one, made by an ace and a ten, or court card, whenever dealt in the first instance, is styled a natural vingt-un, should be declared immediately, and entitles the possessor to the deal, besides double stakes, from all the players, unless there shall be more than one natural vingt-un, in which case the younger hand or hands so having the same, are excused from paying to the eldest, who takes the deal of course.
N.B. An ace may be reckoned either as eleven or one; every court-card is counted as ten, and the rest of the pack according to their pips.—Hoyle.
Vintage, s. The produce of the vine for the year; the time in which grapes are gathered.
Viper, s. A serpent of that species which brings its young alive; any thing mischievous.
When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, I wish I had not forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have of stinking se defendendo. I knew a gentleman who kept a tame snake, which was in its person as sweet as any animal while in good humour and unalarmed; but as soon as a stranger, or a dog or cat, came in, it fell to hissing, and filled the room with such nauseous effluvia as rendered it hardly supportable. Thus the squnck, or stonck, of Ray’s Synop. Quadr. is an innocuous and sweet animal; but, when pressed hard by dogs and men, it can eject such a most pestilent and fetid smell and excrement, that nothing can be more horrible.