[177] Basset would seem to have been a common game at the court of France about the same period. "The King (Louis XIV) now seldom or never plays, but contents himself sometimes with looking on; but formerly he hath been engaged, and has lost great sums. Mons. S. rookt him of near a million of livres at Basset by putting false cards upon him, but was imprisoned and banished for it some years."--Dr. Martin Lister, Journey to Paris in the year 1698. In 1691, Louis XIV issued an ordonnance prohibiting Faro, Basset, and other similar games. Whoever should be convicted of playing at any of those games was to be fined a thousand livres; and the person who allowed them to be played in his house incurred a penalty of six thousand livres. Basset and Flush--il Frusso--appear to have been known in Italy in the fifteenth century. They are mentioned by Lorenzo de Medici in his Canti Carnascialeschi, quoted by Singer, Researches, p. 26. [178] The following is the title of a pack of geographical cards, now lying before me, which appear to have been engraved in the reign of Charles II. "The 52 Counties of England and Wales, geographically described in a pack of Cards, whereunto is added the length, breadth, and circuit of each county, the latitude, situation, and distance from London of the principal Cities, Towns, and Rivers, with other Remarks; as plaine and ready for the playing of all our English Games as any of the common Cards." The heads of the Kings are shown at the top of the maps of Hereford, Monmouth, Middlesex, and Yorkshire; of the Queens at the top of the maps of Durham, Huntingdon, Radnor, and Worcestershire; and of the Knaves at the top of the maps of Anglesey, Gloucester, Leicester, and Rutland. If the deviser had any particular meaning in his assignment of the coat cards, it is not easy to be discovered; though it may be "shrewdly guessed at" as respects Monmouth and York. [179] Lord Chesterfield is reported to have said to Anstis on one occasion, when the latter was talking to him about heraldry, "You silly man, you do not understand your own foolish business." [180] Menestrier, Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive, tom. ii, p. 180. [181] By card-makers the coat cards--King, Queen, and Knave--are technically termed _têtes_, and the others _pips_. [182] "Jeu d'Armoires, où tous les termes du Blazon sont expliqués et rangés par ordre. Dedié à Monseigneur le Duc de Bourgogne. Se vend à Paris, chez Vallet, dessinateur et graveur du Roy." The privilege to the author, Sieur Gauthier, is dated 15th December, 1686. [183] "The PUFF COLLUSIVE is the newest of any; for it acts in the disguise of determined hostility. It is much used by bold booksellers and enterprising poets."--The Critic, act i. The "puff collusive" was not an invention of Sheridan's time, but merely the revival of an old trick. [184] The advertisement of those cards is preserved amongst Bagford's collections, Harleian MSS. No. 5947.