The game of Whist & Chocolate houses
7/14/2023 12:27 pm | : 5 mins. | Share to: 
Wow. So this post started out as just me linking to the Gutenberg.org archive of 'Hoyle's Games Modernized' from 120 years ago but it took me down an entire rabbit hole. The book covers the rules for such classics as Chess, Draughts (checkers), Cribbage, Baccarat, Whist, and more. But it's Whist, specifically from the mention in the Preface below, which captured me.
It is significant of the respect in which Hoyle was held, that his Laws of Whist, with some slight alterations by the habitués of White's and Saunders' chocolate-houses (the then headquarters of the game), were accepted as the final authority from 1760 till 1864, when the basis of the present code, settled by the Turf and Portland Clubs, was adopted in their stead.
Did you catch it? Did it jump out at you too?
Chocolate houses?
Is that a euphemism? Nope. Not at all.
Okay, well, yes--sort of.
My first Googling took me to this entry from the "Museum of Hot Chocolate" which briefly discusses the "Chocolate House Phenomenon" in London. But it's a quite sparse on detail.
In 1657 London's first chocolate shop opened in Queen's Head Alley, Bishopsgate Street, and was advertised in The Publick Adviser as being run by a Frenchman. This innovation was evidently very popular because chocolate houses sprang up around the city, and later in Bristol and Bath.
In 1675 King Charles II issued legislation to suppress coffee and chocolate houses, which he believed were “hotbeds of sedition”, although this was withdrawn within days.
So King Charles was worried men hopped up on cocoa beans were planning his downfall? Color me intrigued!
Further searching yields an entry on Atlas Obscura about the "The Rambunctious, Elitist Chocolate Houses of 18th-Century London." Well before I was interested, but now you have my attention!
These chocolate houses are the origins of the modern Gentleman's club. Places where men gathered for debauchery, gambling and MOST sinister - chocolate.
As painted by William Hogarth as part of his 'A Rake's Progress' here is #6 in the series, "The Gaming House" portraying the life inside one such chocolate house.
And from these dins of iniquity emerged the game of Whist. What is Whist? It's quite similar to Hearts which so many of us learned thanks to Windows having it pre-installed. But rather than avoiding taking tricks, the goal in Whist is to take tricks - another differentiating factor is that it is commonly played in teams.
Here's a brief explanation of the rules:
Chocolate really is the greatest thing ever, to give us so much joy in various direct and indirect ways.
