Note 636 — CANTO THE TWELFTH.
Reading edition
{471}["This game originated, I believe, in Germany.... It is called the game of the goose, because at every fourth and fifth compartment of the table in succession a goose is depicted; and if the cast thrown by the player falls upon a goose, he moves forward double the number of his throw" (Sports and Pastimes, etc., by Joseph Strutt, 1801, p. 250).
Goldsmith, in his Deserted Village, among other "parlour splendours," mentions "the twelve good rules, the royal game of goose."]