Note 59 — 1850.

When oppressed by the monotony of his employments sergeant Steel sometimes resorted to the study of extraneous subjects to hold his mind fresh for his public duties. In this way he learned phonography and the grave game of chess. The latter he acquired, not by the teaching of any interested instructor, but by an examination of a series of numbers of the “Illustrated London News.”

It may be allowed to expatiate a little on this matter. A gentleman, who had visited the Shetland group, being kindly entertained by Mr. Spence of Haroldswick in Unst, quitted the country favourably impressed with the homestead of that good man. Shortly after, “The Illustrated London News” was sent to Mr. Spence, and has ever since been regularly forwarded to him, either by the unknown visitor or the proprietor himself. The mystery which Still hangs over the generous transaction is not without interest in Unst. From Mr. Spence the illustrated journal was weekly supplied for the perusal of the sergeant, then encamped on the lonely island of Balta, who, after devouring its contents, turned his attention to the study of chess.

Discovering no analogy between the powers of the puppets and their forms or designations, he first applied himself to manufacture a suite of men, which should at least have the merit of corresponding in character with the authority they possessed. Eschewing those fantastic shapes in which chessmen are usually carved, and which, indeed, seem as ancient as the grotesque figures on the court cards of a genuine pack, he devised a simple scheme to remind him of their powers. Thirty-two cubes of wood, sixteen stained white and sixteen black, were marked with lines on all their faces, agreeably to the ranks of the warriors, and the liberty they possessed in moving over the board. The definitions were shown by black lines on the white cubes, and white on the black. The bishop having power to roam, under certain restrictions, in diagonal directions, a piece was assigned to his reverence with diagonal lines marked across the square. The rook having a rectangular motion was indicated by a rectangular figure, while the redoubtable knight, always moving obliquely, was reticulated with lines which pointed out the avenues of his march in quest of the enemy. The queen, combining in her will, the power of motion exercised both by the rook and knight, exhibited on her royal square the necessary lines to make plain the extent of her liberty. Just so with the king, who, in this respect had equal power with his consort; but as the queen had authority to move forward or backward as far as the chequers were open, and the king could only plant his royal foot in one check at a time, Steel, to show the curious difference between their majesties, introduced into the king’s escutcheon, a pellet between each pair of lines to mark the limit of his government and distinguish him from his royal spouse. The pawn—the common soldier of the board—permitted only to move forward perpendicularly, and to capture like his knight obliquely, was singled out from the other puppets by three lines issuing from a common centre—one directed upwards to the edge of the square and the other two diverging obliquely to the angles. By this facile application of geometrical combinations he never required to charge his memory with the relative powers and movements of the several pieces, and thus became a fair player at the game of chess.