The games, in truth, which in England are nearly forgotten, even within their last asylums--ladies’ schools and nurseries,--were thirty years ago a favourite amusement in this country. That they have, at some period, been common to a great part of Europe, will not be doubted by any one who, like myself, may attach such importance to this subject as to be at the trouble of comparing the different sports of that kind which prevail in France, England, and Spain. I wish, indeed, that antiquarians were a more jovial and volatile race than I have found them in general; and that some one would trace up these amusements to their common source. The French, with that spirit of system and scientific arrangement which even their perfumers, _Marchandes de Modes_, and dancing-masters display, have already, according to a treatise now lying before me, distributed these games into _Jeux d’action_ and _Jeux d’esprit_.
In marking their similarity among the three nations I have mentioned, I shall pass over the former; for who can doubt that _romping_ (so I will venture, though less elegantly, to express the French _action_) is an innate principle in mankind, impelling the human animal to similar pranks all over the globe, from the first to the third of his climacterics? But to find that, just at the age when he perceives the necessity of assuming the demureness of maturity, he should, in different places and under a variety of circumstances, fall upon the same contrivances in order to _desipere in loco_, or to find a loop-hole to indulge himself in _playing the fool_, is a phenomenon which I beg leave to recommend to the attention of philosophers.
The _jeux d’esprit_, which I find to be used, with some slight variations, in France, England, and Spain, or, at least, in some two of those countries, are--_The Aviary_, or giving the heart to one bird, committing one’s secret to another, and plucking a feather from a third; at the risk of mistaking the objects of the intended raillery or gallantry, disguised under the name of different birds.--In _The Soldier_, the players being questioned by the leader about the clothing they mean to give a decayed veteran, must avoid the words _yes_, _no_, _white_, and _black_. The ingenuity displayed in this game is much of the kind that appears in some of our tales of the seventeenth century, where the author engaged to omit some particular vowel throughout his narrative.--_Exhausting a letter_, each player being obliged to use three words with the initial proposed by the leader. The English game, _I love my love_, is a modification of this: in Spanish it is commonly called _el Jardin_, the Garden.--_La Plaza de Toros_, or the Bull Amphitheatre, in French, _L’Amphigouri_, is a story made up of words collected from the players, each of whom engages to name objects peculiar to some trade.--_Le mot placé_, a refinement on _Cross purposes_, in Spanish _Los Despropósitos_, is a game in which every player in the ring, having whispered to his neighbour, on the right, the most unusual word he can think of, questions are put in the opposite direction, the answer to which, besides being pertinent, must contain the given word.--_The stool of repentance_, (Gallicè) _La Sellette_, (Hispan.) _La Berlina_, is, as my French author wisely observes, a dangerous game, where the penitent hears his faults from every one in company through the medium of the leader, till he can guess the person who has nettled him most by his remarks.