Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/49

 us. vii Jan. is, 1913] NOTES AND QUERIES. 41 LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY IS, VMS. CONTENTS.—No. 160. • NOTES :—Primero, 41—A Justification of King John, 43— Hugh Peters — John Walter, 46 — Edmund Qraile— Dialogues by Meredith, 46 — The Wandering Jew: Probable Buddhist Origin — Phiiologic Relationship — John Stubbe, 47—Handel, the Shakespeare of Music, 48. QUERIES:—Lingen Family—Thirty-Nine Articles-" Thou ascended," 48—Francis Lodwick—Henry Meredith Parker — Author Wanted — Redding : Hervey : Richardson — Johanna Williamscote—Artists and Publishers—Benedict Arnold—The " Last Governor of Calais " : Bells of Powick, 49—Capital Letters—" John o' Oaunt's Chapel," Belper— "Thof"—Ireland's 'Life of Napoleon'—Worship of the Horse — Authors Wanted — Richardson, Auctioneer — Biographical Information Wanted, 50. REPLIES :—Christmas Eve in Provence—Limb's Chapel, London—Fisher Family, 51—"Dander"—To be "out" for a Thing—" Notch," 52—Cawthorne—Campden House —Symbolism of the Pentalpha—A Memory Game, 53—No Twin ever Famous—" Curzo "—" Tamson's Me&r (Mare) " —Sir John Greville of Binton—' Ian Roy '—T. Chippen- dale, Upholsterer, 54 — History of Churches in Situ— "Apium," 65—First Folio Shakespeare—" Of sorts," 66 — The Inquisition in Fiction and Drama — Berrysfleld — Monuments at Warwick — Queen Elizabeth and Richard II.— General Beat-son and the Crimean War, 67 —Hampden Surname —William Dargan, 58. NOTES ON BOOKS : — 'Cardinal Manning, and Other Essays'—' The Lost Language of Symbolism '—'The Story of Architecture in Oxford Stone'—' Burke's Peerage.' Notices to Correspondents. iHofas. PRIMERO. (See ante, pp. 1, 23.) It is evident from all the foregoing accounts that Primero belongs to the same family of games as Post - and - Pair, Brag. Poker, &c, and no doubt it was their progenitor. Their princ'ple is staking upon hands (or cards), which are classed and valued by particular rules, instead of playing the cards composing the hands in tricks. Con- sequently these games belong to the gambling class. It is not meant thereby that judg- ment and skill to a considerable extent may not be exercised in playing the games, but that from their nature the main feature was the staking of money. An investigation of the same details demonstrates that the game of Primero was played in a variety of ways. Two of these varieties are markedly distinct : one being played with a larger pack (ca'led Great Primero), in which each player generally received a hand of six cards ; and the other with a smaller pack (called Little Primero), in which the original hands were four cards. The latter apparently was the older game. The pack in the oldest version without doubt consisted of twenty-eight cards, the Ace to Seven of each suit, being the Hombro pack with the Court cards rejected. Some- times a Knave was added, which acted like the Joker of the present day, in being allowed to represent any card its holder desired. However, we find in very old accounts the Hombre pack being used too. and also the full pack. Any number of players that the pack would accommodate could play, but the most usual set was four. Before play was commenced the amounts of the Stake and the Rest were settled, the latter being always the higher sum. At the beginning of the deal every player placed his Stake in the pool. The dealer gave out, unexposed, two cards to each player (himself included), by single cards, in two rounds. When the players had exa- mined these cards, each in turn, commencing with the eldest, announced whether he played or not. Those who played put their Rest into the pool, and the others threw up their cards unexposed, and had no further interest in it. But if all the others passed and the dealer played, then it became a must, and every player had to play and pay in his Rest. If, however, all passed, including the dealer, the deal was at an end, and the stakes in the pool went to augment the next pool. The players respec- tively remaining in had the option in turn of either keeping one or both cards, or rejecting both, placing the discards in the middle of the table unexposed. The dealer accordingly supplied each player in turn with two, three, or four fr?sh cards unex- posed, so as to make the respective players' hands up to four cards each. The vying (or betting) then commenced, beginning with the eldest. The vye usually remained ft fixed sum, and the player vying placed the amount in the pool. Any player in his turn could pass, vye, or revye. A revyo required the placing of an extra stake—the same as the vye—in the pool. Every player had to see or equal all vyes and revyes, or re ire from the pool. Whenever all the stakes of the players remaining in became equalized, there was a show of the hands, and the hand the highest in value won the whole pool ; but if all the players retired but one, that single player took the pool wi hout any regard to the value of his hand. Hands