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igures standing upon concentric balls; antique Persian sets in cream-coloured ivory decorated in colours and gold, kings and queens on elephants, knights on horses, and bishops on camels; Burmese sets with royal personages seated on chairs of state; and some very remarkable English porcelain, Wedgwood ware, and Minton pottery sets. Several finds of Scandinavian chessmen, made, probably, in the twelfth century, have been made in the island of Lewis. From these and other sets met with in other places much has been learned about the evolution in the game. The queen does not appear to have been introduced into the game until the eleventh century. The castle has undergone many changes; its older name of "rook" was derived from the Persian word _rokh_, a hero. No doubt all the pieces were then carved personalities, well understood from king to pawn. In the modern forms of Staunton and London Club patterns the knight alone retains its semblance in the horse's head--a poor substitute for the beautifully carved warrior on horseback seen in some of the older sets. Draughts, or dames, is also a game of antiquity; and in the British Museum there is a set said to date back to the Saxon period. Some of the old boards are interesting relics, and the sets of carved draughtsmen, now scarce, are beautiful works of art. Backgammon is one of the older kindred games, frequently played on the interior of the chess board which was for that purpose marked with twelve points or fleches in alternate colours. In this game dice were used, and some of the old dice cups are very prettily decorated. Cribbage played with cards and a board is said to be essentially an English game. Some very remarkable cribbage boards were made many years ago, many of metal, others of wood and ivory; one exceptionally interesting piece, a brass cribbage board, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, is engraved: "MR. CHRISTR ELLIOTT AT WINBORROW GREEN, SUSSEX 1768." Cards, of which there are so many curious types among the old examples found in many homes, were introduced into the West of Europe from the East about the fourteenth century. At first they were hand drawn and coloured, then printed from wood blocks, being subsequently printed from blocks and plates engraved on the types which were gradually standardized. Some very interesting collections of old cards have been made, one of the most complete being that of Lady Charlotte Schreiber, now in the Depart
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