Francis Willughby's Book of Games

A Seventeenth-Century Treatise on Sports, Games and Pastimes

David Cram, Jeffrey L. Forgeng

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781859284605
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351935869
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Francis Willughby's Book of Games, published here for the first time, is a remarkable work and an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in early modern social history. Dating from the 1660s, it was left unfinished when the writer died in 1672 at the age of 36. Nevertheless, Willughby's manuscript, even in its unpolished form is a goldmine of detail providing a snapshot of mid seventeenth century life, language and culture. The manuscript itself lists a wide variety of sports, games and pastimes, including football, hurling, card games, tennis and children's games. As well as providing rules and a description of the various games (often with accompanying sketches to explain particular points) there are numerous fascinating snippets of related information (such as the care of fighting cocks), that bring the subject to life, whilst the section on children's games is particularly poignant. Besides the intrinsic interest of the subject matter, the fact that Willughby embarked on the project from a scientific perspective adds to the value of the book. Willughby had been admitted to the Royal Society in 1661 and for a number of years prior to that had been collaborating with the naturalist John Ray. It is clear that Willughby's Book of Games was highly influenced by his scientific pursuits and was an extension of his natural history work, utilising the same skills of systematic observation, description and classification. Providing not only a word-for word transcription of the Book of Games, this volume also contains a host of interpretative material to complement the original data. As well as a biography of Willughby and a detailed description of his manuscript, a substantial glossary of games and obsolete terms is provided, together with a bibliography of Willughby's literary remains and more general reference works. Taken together, this publication provides an unparalleled resource for scholars of early modern England.

Francis Willughby’s Book of Games

Nottingham University Library Mi LM 14

Willughby’s Index lists the games alphabetically in four columns, grouping some within classified categories; page references are to those of the manuscript. This index does not give a full list of the headings in the text, children’s games being notably under-represented. For a full index, see the Glossary of Games at the end of the volume.

Ball	167
Foot Ball	155
Bandie Ball	170
Stoole Ball	169
Call & I Call	168
Hurling	155
Biliards	14
Boules	243
Bull Batings, Cock Fighting &c.	259^1
Cards
Where all the Cards are used
Put	89
Hanikin Canst Abide It	60
Laugh & Ly Downe	61
One & Thirtie	59
31 Bonace	60
Nodde	65
Cribbidge	69
Trumpe, Trumpe & Ruffe^2	71
Beste	79
Lodum	83
Winning [Loadum]	85
Whehee	90
Where Some are Put Out
Ging	87
Gleeke	73
Best	79
The First Games that Children
Learn	217
Duelling, Wrestling &c.	275
Draughts	259
Drawing, Lifting	157
Drollery	235
Dust Pointe	236
Fox & Goose	256
Kitcat	173
Horne Billets	175
Drudgecat	175
Leaping	161
Scotch Hopper	163
Vaulting	162
Hop Frog	162
Long-Laurence	47
3 Mens Maurice, 9 Mens Maurice	254
Nine Holes or Troll Madame	249
Pitching the Barre	160
Quoits	241
Pennie Prick	241
Running^3	151
Prison Barres	153
Foot Ball	155
Lil Man	154
Barly Breakes X	148
Hunting a Deer in My Lords Parke	220
Selling of Bargaines	235
Purposes	237
Riddles &c.	238
Gliffes	234
Shooting with Bowes, Crosse^4
Bowes &c.	181
Father Fitchard	187
Shovel B[oard]^5	251
Shickle Cock	177
Span Counter	253
Stow Ball	13
Tables	17
Games with one Table
Dublets	23^6
Games with 2 Tables
Ticktack	27
Irish	37
Backgammon	43
Tennis	15
Ten-Pegs	245
Tricks at Cards	101^7
Trole Madame or 9 Holes	249^8
Tricks to Ab[use] & Hurt One
[Another]	249^9

Willughby’s general remarks about games, under the heading ‘Plaies’, are written in a small notebook attached to the folio volume immediately following his index. It is clear that this notebook was originally used for other purposes; the following text on the booklet’s first page has been cancelled by two parallel lines.

Tetragonismus nondum inventus est quanquam inveniri posse certum est. Marini in data Euc: 6¹⁰

Vli[ss]is Aldrovandi
Ornithologia	20 li: in 3 foliis
De insectis	7 li: 1 fo
De crustaceis	4 li: [postmortem]^11 editi^12

Gesneri liber quartus

de Aquatilibus cum

Paralip[omena]¹³

Worsly:

Wignal:¹⁴

Plaies

Plaies may bee divided either into^15,16

The word Game is most properly used for Cards, Tables, /Chests &c., & not for games of exercise.

Plaies are allso either¹⁷

Proper to severall countries, as:

The countries where plaies have bene invented & the persons that invented them. The time when they first begun to bee generally used.

Q: Wither there bee not something of chance in all games whatsoever, as in Chest it selfe, Boules &c.

Plaies either

Used most¹⁸

Plaies¹⁹

A great manie plaies for exercise use a sphærula or ball: Hurling, Stoole Ball, Stow-Ball, Boules.

The etymologie of the names of plaies.²⁰

Amongst the exercises may bee reckoned Running, Wrestling, Shooting &c.

[The Puzzle of the Ship]

Placing the cards or table men that everie tenth of the white or black may bee taken. V: p. 360, De Geometria &c.²¹

How to place them that everie eight may bee taken, everie sixt, &c.; that black &white may bee taken by turnes &c.

Whatever²² the number of white or black man bee to [bee] taken or spared, place them at first as it happens, and then count to the 5^th, if every fifth bee to bee taken, to the 6^th, if every 6^th, &c., and if it bee of the contrary colour, change it and put that in the place of another and another in the place of that, putting those that are right placed in a row above the former, that you bent confounded and mistake the places, & so count round till you have placed all the men of one sort right and then fill the interstices²³ with the other sort. As if the number of both bee 20, 12 white & 8 black, everie fifth man is to bee taken, and I would place them so, that all the white should bee taken before²⁴ any of the black. Let o stand for black, a for white, and place them as it happens:

In this example whereever there was an a in the fifth place twas remooved into the upper line, whereever there was an o it was /carried to another place where there was an a, and the a brought thither and placed in the upper line. In the same manner if there were 3 or 4 severall sorts to bee picked out one after another, as black, white, red, &c., they might bee placed at randome at first, and then remooved into their true places, so as all the white should bee taken first, then the red, then the black &c. Or they might be placed so as to bee taken by turnes, first a white man, then a red man, &c.; or that 1 white should bee taken for one black, or in any other proportion that should bee required.

There can bee but 1 way to place them, for if one black should bee put in the place of a white man it must come to bee taken instead of a white man and the order would bee confounded. X X X X X

If they should then bee set in a circle there could bee but one way, but if in a streight line there might bee severall waies, as in the last example the line might bee begun at the end of every five, as a o o a a &c., or o a a o a which is the third five.²⁵ X X

Suppose...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Editorial Conventions
• Introduction
• Figures
• Francis Willughby’s Book of Games
• Appendices
• Glossaries
• Bibliography
• Index of Names