THE CANTERBURY PUZZLES
pastime of " shying at cocoanuts " that is to-day so popular on Bank
Holidays on Hampstead Heath and elsewhere. Then the players
introduced balls, as an improvement on the club.
In the illustration we get a picture of some of our fourteenth-
century ancestors playing at kayle-pins in this manner.
Now, I will introduce to my readers a new game of parlour
kayle-pins, that can be played across the table without any pre-
paration whatever. You simply place in a straight row thirteen
dominoes, chess-pawns, draughtsmen, counters, coins, or beans—
anything will do—all close together, and then remove the second one?
as shown in the picture.
It is assumed that the ancient players had become so expert that
they could always knock down any single kayle-pin, or any two
kayle-pins that stood close together. They therefore altered the
game, and it was agreed that the player who knocked down the
last pin was the winner.
Therefore, in playing our table-game, all you have to do is to
knock down with your fingers, or take away, any single kayle-pin or
two adjoining kayle-pins, playing alternately until one of the two
players makes the last capture, and so wins. I think it will be found
a fascinating little game, and I will show the secret of winning.
Remember that the second kayle-pin must be removed before
you begin to play, and that if you knock down two at once those
two must be close together, because in the real game the ball could
not do more than this.
74.—
The Broken Chessboard.
There is a story of Prince Henry, son of William the Conqueror,
afterwards Henry I., that is so frequently recorded in the old
chronicles that it is doubtless authentic. The following version of
the incident is taken from Hay ward's
Life of William the
Conqueror,
published in 1613:
" Towards the end of his reigne he appointed his two sonnes
Robert and Henry, with joynt authoritie, governours of Normandie ;
the one to suppresse either the insolence or levitie of the other.
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