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Dictionary definition: according to Hoyle
- Article from:
- A New Dictionary of Eponyms
- Author:
Copyright© A New Dictionary of Eponyms 1997, originally published by Oxford University Press 1997. (Hide copyright information)
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according to Hoyle
Although card-playing was a favorite among the wealthy for many generations, it was not until the seventeenth century that the manufacture of inexpensive decks of cards enabled the masses to enjoy this game. Cards soon became the rage throughout Europe. The game that held an irresistible attraction for the English was whist, the forerunner of bridge.
Whist could be played according to dozens of systems, which led Edmund Hoyle, an English writer (1672–1769), to write a book of rules called
A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist
(1742); the book eventually became the accepted authority on the playing of the game. Hoyle soon wrote on other popular card games and was ...