Note 1 — LECTURE I. —— INTRODUCTORY. ——
Reading edition
“That there are a large number of players who think they play Whist, and yet do not reason, is too true, but such play may be Bumblepuppy, or some other game; it certainly is not Whist.”—Westminster Papers.
Definitions of Bumblepuppy.
Bumblepuppy is persisting to play Whist, either in utter ignorance of all its known principles, or in defiance of them, or both.
Hudibras has given another definition—
“A lib’ral art that costs no pains Of study, industry, or brains.”
“Bumblepuppy was played in low public houses.”
“Here and there were Bumblepuppy grounds, a game in which the players rolled iron balls into holes marked with numbers.”—Chronicles of Newgate.
From which I infer that in the good old times this game first drove its votaries to drinking, and then landed them in a felon’s cell.