Games

Drinking may be done in taverns, ale houses, or tippling houses.

Gambling is gaming (game-ing).

Playing at dice is dicing.

At the table

A popular dice game is Hazard, played rather like Craps.

The word for backgammon is tables. The "ace-deuce" version is called the Corsican game.

You can lose a good deal of money in a tabling den.

An easy card game is Landsknecht. Two much harder ones are Primero and Taroccho (ta-ro'-koh), played with tarot cards.

Other sport

A whore house or stew is also a bawdy house or a leaping house or a shugging den.

A drab is a woman of low character or a prostitute. A drabber is someone who spends too much time with such women.

A punk is a whore who may work in a stew. Working girls in Southwark in the domain of the Bishop of Winchester are also called Winchester geese.

Note: Scottish money is worth about one-quarter of the English in the same denominations. That is, a Scottish pound is worth about five English shillings. Irish money is worth even less, and they may want to pay you in nails. (Be wary when gaming with either.)

  Filling the Time
  More Things To Do
  Still More Things To Do
  The Hunt is Up

25 March 2008 mps