Ashton begins with dice among the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, then settles in England: Latimer’s sermon on cards, laws against gaming, the names of forgotten card games, and the fashionable tables of the Restoration and the eighteenth century. Celebrated gamblers, swindlers and debtors who refused to pay crowd the pages, drawn from old newspapers, pamphlets and memoirs.
An entertaining work of social history from a Victorian collector of curious lore, ideal for browsing. Download the free EPUB.