Holland adds, If the hands give way before twenty is reached it is counted a bad honey pot; if not, it is a good one. In Dublin the seller sings out-- Honey pots, honey pots, all in a row, Twenty-five shillings wherever you go-- Who ll buy my honey pots? --Mrs. Lincoln. The game is mentioned by a writer in _Blackwood s Magazine_, August 1821, p. 36, as being played in Edinburgh when he was a boy. Hood A game played at Haxey, in the Isle of Axholme, on the 6th of January. The Hood is a piece of sacking, rolled tightly up and well corded, and which weighs about six pounds. This is taken into an open field on the north side of the church, to be contended for by the youths assembled for that purpose. When the Hood is about to be thrown up, the Plough-bullocks or Boggins, as they are called, dressed in scarlet jackets, are placed amongst the crowd at certain distances. Their persons are sacred, and if amidst the general row the Hood falls into the hands of one of them, the sport begins again.
Even if the dealer has a Nine himself, he is not allowed to keep the turn-up trump. If the same player holds both Nines he may score twenty on winning a trick. A player with 990 up is not out if he turns up the Nine. He must win a trick. _=Melds.=_ All the combinations have the same value as in the ordinary game, but all melds are laid upon the table before a card is played. When he lays down his cards, a player may make as many combinations with them as he can, just as he would in the ordinary game if he had plenty of time. If he has the trump sequence, he may lay down the marriage first, then the A 10 J. If he has double binocle, he may lay down the single first, and then the other, claiming the count for both. Four Kings and four Queens count 220.
| +-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ _=LOSING GAME.=_ In this variety of Draughts, the object is to give away all your men before your adversary can give away his, or to block yourself so that you cannot move. The secret of success in Losing Game is to get your men on such squares that they cannot be made to jump to the king row. These squares will be the row next you on your own side of the board, and every second row from that, horizontally. Get your men on those squares as soon as possible, and do not be in too great a hurry to capture your adversary’s men. _=POLISH DRAUGHTS.=_ Although intended for a special board of 100 squares this game can be played on a common checker board. It differs from ordinary draughts in two particulars: Although the men can move only forward, they can take backward, and Kings can go any distance at one move. If in taking a piece, a man arrives at the king row, that does not end the move if he can capture another piece by jumping backward out of the king row again. As this brings him away from the king row before the move is complete, he will not be a king until he can get to the king row at the end of a move.
Not only are the masses of men and material and suffering and inconvenience too monstrously big for reason, but--the available heads we have for it, are too small. That, I think, is the most pacific realisation conceivable, and Little War brings you to it as nothing else but Great War can do. APPENDIX LITTLE WARS AND KRIEGSPIEL THIS little book has, I hope, been perfectly frank about its intentions. It is not a book upon Kriegspiel. It gives merely a game that may be played by two or four or six amateurish persons in an afternoon and evening with toy soldiers. But it has a very distinct relation to Kriegspiel; and since the main portion of it was written and published in a magazine, I have had quite a considerable correspondence with military people who have been interested by it, and who have shown a very friendly spirit towards it--in spite of the pacific outbreak in its concluding section. They tell me--what I already a little suspected--that Kriegspiel, as it is played by the British Army, is a very dull and unsatisfactory exercise, lacking in realism, in stir and the unexpected, obsessed by the umpire at every turn, and of very doubtful value in waking up the imagination, which should be its chief function. I am particularly indebted to Colonel Mark Sykes for advice and information in this matter. He has pointed out to me the possibility of developing Little Wars into a vivid and inspiring Kriegspiel, in which the element of the umpire would be reduced to a minimum; and it would be ungrateful to him, and a waste of an interesting opportunity, if I did not add this Appendix, pointing out how a Kriegspiel of real educational value for junior officers may be developed out of the amusing methods of Little War. If Great War is to be played at all, the better it is played the more humanely it will be done.
8. No player should object to referring a disputed question of fact to a bystander who professes himself uninterested in the result of the game, and able to decide the question. 9. Bystanders should not in any manner call attention to, or give any intimation concerning the play or the state of the game, during the play of a hand. They should not look over the hand of a player without his permission; nor should they walk round the table to look at the different hands. ERRONEOUS SCORES. Any error in the trick score may be corrected before the last card has been dealt in the following deal; or if the error occurs in the last hand of a game or rubber, it may be corrected before the score is agreed to. Errors in other scores may be corrected at any time before the final score of the game or rubber is agreed to. BIDDING. In _=Boston=_, or _=Solo Whist=_, any player making a bid must stand by it, and either play or pay.
If the dummy call to the attention of the declarer that he is about to lead from the wrong hand, either adversary may require that the lead be made from that hand. 63. Dummy is not subject to the revoke penalty; if he revoke and the error be not discovered until the trick be turned and quitted, whether by the rightful winners or not, the trick must stand. 64. A card from the declarer’s hand is not played until actually quitted, but should he name or touch a card in the dummy, such card is played unless he say, “I arrange,” or words to that effect. If he simultaneously touch two or more such cards, he may elect which to play. CARDS EXPOSED BEFORE PLAY. 65. After the deal and before the declaration has been finally determined, if any player lead or expose a card, his partner may not thereafter bid or double during that declaration,[14] and the card is subject to call.[15] When the partner of the offending player is the original leader, the declarer may also prohibit the initial lead of the suit of the exposed card.