CHESS. 35 



occasion he found himself in a remote comer of England, where 

 billiards were unknown. He solaced himself for hours together by 

 the solitary and senseless game of Patience ! ) To this general answer 

 to the objection above named, I will add, that I have known very few 

 tolerable Chess players who were of a frivolous turn of mind. To 

 such, indeed, the intellectual conflict of Chess would scarcely prove a 

 recreation. 



A club, of course, affords the best opportunity both of enjoying the 

 diversion of Chess, and of improving in the science. But it would 

 be rendered easily attainable as a domestic recreation if the rudiments 

 were in the first place generally learnt, and if beginners would resolve 

 in general to match themselves fairly by giving or taking such odds 

 as would equalise their strength. For want of this, many have quitted 

 the chequered field either wearied and dejected by repeated defeats, 

 or, like the Irish tailor of pugnacious memory, " blue-moulded for 

 want of a bating." 



Ere I quit this part of my subject, I beg to remind my hearers 

 that Hull possesses a Chess club containing several very promising 

 players. The meetings are weekly, held in the Public Rooms on 

 Monday evenings, from seven o'clock to eleven, during the whole 

 winter season. After eleven o'clock no new game may be commenced* 

 The numbers as yet are but limited ; but convinced as I am that the 

 natives of this district are generally gifted with more than average 

 powers of calculation, I confidently hope to see a Chess-club in Hull 

 rivalling even those of Leeds or Nottingham. 



[The remainder of Mr. Francis's paper would be scarcely intelli- 

 gible without the apparatus which he employed in illustrating the 

 tactics of Chess. The openings which he selected for explanation 

 and comment were the Giuoco Piano and the Evans and Cunningham 

 Gambits. He likewise explained at length the construction of that 

 ingenious, though in no fair sense automatic piece of mechanism, the 

 celebrated " Automaton Chess Player." For a full account of this 

 figure, we would refer our readers to Vol. 1 of the " Chess Player's 

 Chronicle," which was repeatedly quoted by the lecturer. At the 

 conclusion of the paper of which we have furnished a sketch, a short 

 discussion took place, which elicited some curious and interesting 

 anecdotes, and also brought into notice the four-handed game, which 

 all seemed to agree in recommending, with the proviso that the time 



