Compound Scores.—More than one of the above scores can be made
at the same time. Thus a player pairing with the last card that will
come in scores both pair and go. Similarly a pair and a fifteen, or a
sequence and a fifteen, can be reckoned together.
When the play is over, the hands are shown and counted aloud. The non-dealer has first show and scores and marks first; the dealer afterwards counts, scores and marks what he has in hand, and then takes what is in crib. In counting both hands and crib the “start” is included, so that five cards are involved.
The combinations in hand or crib which entitle to a score are fifteen, pairs or pairs royal, sequences, flushes and “his nob.”
Fifteens.—All the combinations of cards that, taken together, make fifteen exactly, count two. For example, a ten (King, Queen, Knave or Ten) card and a five reckon two, called as “fifteen two.” Another five in the hand or turned up would again combine with the ten card, and entitle to another fifteen (“fifteen four”); if the other cards were a two and a three, two other fifteens would be counted (“fifteen six,” “fifteen eight”)—one for the combination of the three and two with the ten card, and one for the combination of the two fives with the three and two. Similarly two ten cards and two fives reckon eight; a nine and three threes count six; and so on for other cards.
Pairs.—Pairs are reckoned as in play.
Sequences.—Three or more cards in sequence count one for each card. If one sequence card can be substituted for another of the same denomination, the sequence reckons again. For example, 3,4,5 and a 3 turned up reckon two sequences of three; with another 3 there would be three sequences of three, and so on.
Flushes.—If all the cards in hand are of the same suit, one is reckoned for each card. If the start is also of the same suit, one is reckoned for that also. In crib, no flush is reckoned unless the start is of the same suit as the cards in crib.
His Nob.—If a player holds the knave of the suit turned up for the start he counts one “for his nob.”
A dialogue will illustrate the technical conversation of the game, in a game at six-card cribbage. The cards for crib having been discarded, A holds knave of hearts, a four and a pair of twos: B holds a pair of nines, a six and a four. Two of hearts is turned up by B. The hand might be played thus. A lays down a two and says “Two”: B plays a nine and says “Eleven”: A follows with a four, saying “Fifteen two”; pegging two holes at once: B plays his four and says “Nineteen; two for a pair,” and pegs: A putting on his knave, “Twenty-nine”; B says “Go.” A lays down his two, his last card, and says “Thirty-one; good for two.” B plays his nine and six, saying “Fifteen two, and one for my last—three.” The points are marked as they are made. A then counts his hand aloud. “Six for a pair-royal” or “Three twos—good for six,” and “One for his nob—seven,” and throws down his hand for B’s inspection. B, “Fifteen two, fifteen four, fifteen six, fifteen eight, and a pair are ten.” B then looks at his crib and counts it. It contains, say, king, eight, three, ace and the “start” is also reckoned. B counts “Fifteen two and a run of three—five.”
After the points in hand and crib are reckoned, the cards are shuffled and dealt again, and so on alternately until the game is won.
The highest possible score in hand is 29—three fives and a knave, with a five, of the same suit as the knave, turned up.
CRICCIETH, a watering-place and contributory parliamentary borough of Carnarvonshire, Wales, on Cardigan Bay, served by the Cambrian railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 1406. It is interesting for its high antiquity and the ruined castle, a fortress on an eminence where a neck of land ends, projecting into the sea. Portions of two towers are on the very verge of the rock. A double fosse and vallum, with the outer and inner court lines, can be traced. Apparently British, the castle was repaired later, probably in the time of Edward I. Across the bay is seen Harlech castle, backed by the Merionethshire hills. An old county-family mansion near Criccieth is Gwynfryn (happy hill), the seat of the Nanneys, situated near the stream Dwyfawr and within some 7 m. of Pwllheli. Not far is a tumulus, Tomen fawr. At a distance of 5 m. is Tremadoc (which owes its name. Town of Madocks—as does Portmadoc—to Mr W. Madocks, of Morfa Lodge, who made the embankment here). Criccieth has become a favourite watering-place, as well as a centre of excursions. The neighbourhood is agreeable, and the Cardigan Bay shore is shelving and suitable for safe bathing. Cantref y Gwaelod (the hundred of the bottom) is the Welsh literary name of this bay, on the shores of which geological depression has certainly taken place. Mythical history relates how Seithennin’s drunkenness inundated the land now covered by the bay, and how King Arthur’s ship was wrecked upon Meisdiroedd Enlli near Bardsey. The Mabinogion tell how Harlech was a port. Similarly, in Carnarvon Bay, about 2 m. seaward, at low water, are visible the ruins of Caerarianrhod (fortified town of the silver wheel), a submerged town—due to another geological depression.
CRICHTON, JAMES (1560–? 1582), commonly called the “Admirable Crichton,” was the son of Robert Crichton, lord
advocate of Scotland in the reign of Mary and James VI., and of
Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Stewart of Beath, through
whom he claimed royal descent. He was born probably at
Eliock in Dumfriesshire in 1560, and when ten years old was sent
to St Salvator’s College, St Andrews, where he took his B.A. in
1574 and his M.A. in 1575. In 1577 Crichton was undoubtedly in
Paris, but his career on the continent is difficult to follow. That
he displayed considerable classical knowledge, was a good
linguist, a ready and versatile writer of verse, and above all that
he possessed an astounding memory, seems certain, not only
from the evidence of men of his own time, but from the fact that
even Joseph Scaliger (Prima Scaligerana, p. 58, 1669) speaks of
his attainments with the highest praise. But those works of his
which have come down to us show few traces of unusual ability;
and the laudation of him as a universal genius by Sir Thomas
Urquhart and Aldus Manutius requires to be discounted.
Urquhart (in his Discovery of a most exquisite jewel) states that
while in Paris Crichton successfully held a dispute in the college of
Navarre, on any subject and in twelve languages, and that the
next day he won a tilting match at the Louvre. There is, however,
no contemporary evidence for this, the only certain facts
being that for two years Crichton served in the French army, and
that in 1579 he arrived in Genoa. The latter event is proved by a
Latin address (of no particular merit) to the Doge and Senate
entitled Oratio J. Critonii Scoti pro Moderatorum Genuensis
Reipubl. electione coram Senatu habita . . . (Genoa, 1579). The
next year Crichton was in Venice, and won the friendship of Aldus
Manutius by his Latin ode In appulsu ad urbem Venetam de
Proprio statu J. Critonii Scoti Carmen ad Aldum Manuccium . . .
(Venice, 1580). The best contemporary evidence for Crichton’s
stay in Venice is a handbill printed by the Guerra press in 1580
(and now in the British Museum), giving a short biography and an
extravagant eulogy of his powers; he speaks ten languages, has a
command of philosophy, theology, mathematics; he improvises
Latin verses in all metres and on all subjects, has all Aristotle
and his commentators at his fingers’ ends; is of most beautiful
appearance, a soldier from top to toe, &c. This work is undoubtedly
by Manutius, as it was reprinted with his name in
1581 as Relatione della qualità di . . . Crettone, and again in 1582 (reprinted Venice, 1831).
In Venice Crichton met and vanquished all disputants except Giacomo Mazzoni, was followed from place to place by crowds of admirers, and won the affection of the humanists Lorenzo Massa and Giovanni Donati. In March 1581 he went to Padua, where he held two great disputations. In the first he extemporized in succession a Latin poem, a daring onslaught on Aristotelian ignorance, and an oration in praise of ignorance. In the second, which took place in the Church of St John and St Paul, and lasted three days, he undertook to refute innumerable errors in Aristotelians, mathematicians and schoolmen, to conduct his dispute either logically or by the secret doctrine of numbers, &c. According to Aldus, who attended the debate and published an account of it in his dedication to Crichton prefixed to Cicero’s “Paradoxa” (1581), the young Scotsman was completely successful. In June Crichton was once more in Venice, and while there wrote two Latin odes to his friends Lorenzo Massa and Giovanni Donati, but after this date the details of his life are obscure. Urquhart states that he went to Mantua, became the tutor of the young prince of Mantua, Vincenzo di Gonzaga, and was killed by the latter in a street quarrel in 1582. Aldus in his edition of Cicero’s De universitate (1583), dedicated to Crichton, laments the 3rd of July as the fatal day; and this account is apparently confirmed by the Mantuan state papers recently unearthed by Mr Douglas Crichton (Proc. Soc. of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1909). Mr Sidney Lee (Dict. Nat. Biog.) argued against this date, on the ground that in 1584 and 1585 Crichton was alive and in Milan, as certain works of his published in that year testified, and
