“This Enquiry touching the Title of Kings, calls to remembrance the Plays forbidden the Clergy, denominated _Ludos de Rege et Regina_, which might be _Cards_, _Chesse_, or the Game since used even to this Age at _Christmas_, called _Questions and Commands_, and also that Edward I. plaid _ad quatuor Reges_ (Wardrobe Rolls, 6 Ed. I, _Waltero Storton ad opus Regis ad ludendum ad Quatuor Reges_ viii. s. v. d.) which the Collector guesses might be the Game of Cards, wherein are Kings of the four Suits; for he conceives this Play of some Antiquity, because the term _Knave_, representing a Youth, is given to the next Card in Consequence to the King and Queen, and is as it were the Son of them, for, in this Sense this Word, Knave, was heretofore used; thus _Chaucer_ saith, That _Alla_, King of _Northumberland_ begot a Knave Child.” The Hon. Daines Barrington, in a paper read by him to the Society of Antiquaries, Feb. 23, 1786, after quoting Anstis, went on to say that “Edward the First (when Prince of Wales) served nearly five years in Syria, and, therefore, whilst military operations were suspended, must, naturally, have wished for some sedentary amusements. Now the Asiatics scarcely ever change their customs; and, as they play at Cards (though, in many respects, different from ours), it is not improbable that Edward might have been taught the game, _ad quatuor reges_, whilst he continued so long in this part of the globe. “If, however, this article in the Wardrobe account is not allowed to allude to _playing cards_, the next writer who mentions the more early introduction of them is P. Menestrier, who, from such another article in the Privy purse expences of the Kings of France, says they were provided for Charles VI. by his limner, after that King was deprived of his senses in 1392. The entry is the following: ‘Donné a Jacquemin Gringonneur, Peintre, pour _trois jeux_ de Cartes, a or et a diverses couleurs, de plusieurs devises, pour porter vers le dit Seigneur Roi pour son abatement, cinquante six sols Parisis.’” Still supposing the game of “Four Kings” to have been a game at cards, it seems strange that Chaucer, who was born fifty years afterwards, should not have made some mention of Cards as a pastime, for, in his _Franklin’s Tale_, he only mentions that “They dancen; and they play at ches and tables.” The first authentic date we have of playing Cards in England, shows that they had long been in use in 1463, and were manufactured here, for, by an Act of Parliament (3 Edward IV. cap. 4), the _importation_ of playing cards was forbidden. We get an early notice of cards _temp_ Richard III. in the Paston letters[15] from Margery Paston to John Paston, 24 Dec. 1484. “_To my ryght worschipful husband John Paston._