Solitaire
Solitaire is a game most of us have played at some time and it still remains a popular favourite - here we have versions of this game made with beautiful wooden boards and eye-catching pieces.
Solitaire is a puzzle which has baffled the best of minds for centuries. It was first invented by a French nobleman in the Bastille to while away the hours.
Duke
of York Solitaire |
Large
Solitaire |
All
Seeing Solitaire |
Jaques
Mahogany Solitaire |
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History of Solitaire
The popular modern game of Solitaire is played on a Fox and Geese board. The game was supposedly invented by a French count who was incarcerated in prison (there are references in French sources back to 1697) and is really a puzzle more than a game. Solitaire was brought to England in the eighteenth century. You start with all the pegs (or balls) in the holes except the middle hole. Then each turn you hop one peg over another orthogonally but not diagonally. The piece hopped over is taken and removed from the board. The objective is to be left with a single peg in the middle. Similar games are found in Southern Asia but these are not of the Tafl group being descended from a separate source. Two examples are Cows and Leopards from Ceylon and Tigers and Goats, the National Game of Nepal.