length from its curiosity, being the first published, yet I much doubt whether such a set ever existed, and whether the whole is not to be considered, as Mr. Douce suggests, an allegory or moralization, in which that age delighted.

The following is an account of a set of chess-men used at the Court of Denmark: The kings and queens were dressed in their robes, and seated upon thrones. The bishops had their mitres and habits, richly adorned; and the knights were mounted on horses, with fine trappings. The rooks were elephants, with towers on their backs. The men were musketeers, presenting their guns close to their cheeks, as if expecting the word to fire.

In the royal treasury of St. Denis, near Paris, are kept some chess-men, with which it is said Charlemagne (who died in 814),* used to play. Only fifteen pieces and one pawn are remaining, all of ivory, yellowed by time; at the bottom of every one is an Arabic inscription, which, according to Dr.

* This proves to a demonstration the game being near 1000 years old at least,

Hyde, is only the maker's name. The largest piece represents a king sitting on a throne, about twelve inches high, and eight broad, very clumsily carved: the other pieces are of so rude a form that it is difficult to say what they were intended to represent. The pawn (about three inches in height) is the image of a dwarf with a large shield; the countenance is marked with a kind of ludicrous expression.

Dr. Hyde says, that Lewis the XIIIth of France had a chess-board quilted with wool, the men each with a point at the bottom by which means he played when riding in a carriage, sticking the men in the cushion.

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Chess-boards are now commonly made for the use of those who travel by water, or in a carriage, with a hole in each square, a peg at the bottom of every man, and fifteen holes on each side of the board to hold the prisoners.

Charles I. had an elegant set of chessmen, which were kept in a magnificent bag. They are now in the possession of Lord Barrington. The chess-board is inlaid with ebony and ivory, of which materials the

pieces are likewise made. The kings and queens are whole-length human figures, representing European and African sovereigns.

In 1747 there was at Rotterdam, in the possession of a coffee-house-keeper, a set of chess-men, which were made for Prince Eugene. They were three inches in height, of solid silver, chased; not different in colour, but sufficiently distinguished, by one party representing an European, and the other an Asiatic army.

A most valuable set of chess-men are also preserved at Rotterdam, which were made by Vander Werf, the celebrated painter, who employed the leisure hours of eighteen years in carving them. The pieces are three inches high, and the pawns two; half the number are of box, and the other half of ebony; they are all, except the castles, busts on pedestals. The kings are decorated with a lion's skin, of which the paws are crossed on their breast. The fools (bishops with us) have caps and bells, and are represented with very grotesque countenances. The knights are horses' heads and

necks, with flowing manes: the pawns, as well as the pieces, are all different, being eight Negroes and eight whites, of various ages. They are as highly finished as any of his paintings, and are in the possession of his grandson, Mr. Gevers.

The Icelanders, who are great players, make their men of fish bones. They have the bishops as we have; their rooks are officers called centurions, who are represented sounding a horn.

The modern Indian pieces are sometimes made of solid ivory, five or six inches high. The king and queen are seated on elephants, under a canopy, and surrounded by their guards: the bishops are camels, with archers as their riders, and the knights are on horseback, both surrounded with guards likewise; the castles are elephants, with a great gun on each side, suspended from the saddle, or a castle on their backs filled with warriors; the pawns are soldiers—one is a serjeant, another a drummer, and another a fifer, the rest private soldiers. They are sometimes made with red and white car

nelian, and are then very beautiful and valuable.

There appears to have been a game very like Chess, called the philosopher's game. The board of this game is eight squares in breadth, and sixteen in height. There are twenty-four men on a side, represented as flat pieces of wood, cut in the form of circles, triangles, and squares. The king is a square, on which is a triangle and a circle. The bottom or lower part of every man (except the two kings) must be marked with his adversary's colour, that when he is taken he may change his coat, and serve him unto whom he is prisoner. The men are numbered, and are to be taken by equality, obsidion, addition, substraction, multiplication, and division, and by arithmetical, geometrical, and musical proportion."

Carrera invented two new pieces, to be added to the eight original chess-men. That which he calls campione is placed between the king's knight and castle: its move is both that of the castle and of the knight. The other, named centaur, between the queen's knight and castle, has the move of