the Most Vile and Detestable Use of Dice Play, where a full description of methods of cheating at play is given.
The dice were usually made of bone. It was not uncommon, however, to make them of ivory. Occasionally even precious metals were used as the material for a "Bale of dice," the usual term for a pair. We learn from Holinshed's history[1] that the wife of Arden of Feversham sent her paramour Mosbie a pair of silver dice as a present to patch up a quarrel. In and In, Backgammon, Tick Tack, Tables, Passage, and Hazard, were the popular dice games. The latter, which was one of the games played upon a board, was, perhaps, the most popular of all games in taverns and ordinaries. In it the players were accustomed to invocate the dice when they were thrown, as is the present habit in craps.
The sword, dagger, or rapier was a part of the regular every-day dress of the Elizabethan; and its proper use a necessary part of his education. In a letter dated from Leicester House, October 15, 1580, Sir Philip Sidney offers the following advice to his brother Robert:
"When you play at weapons; I would have you get thick caps and bracers [gloves], and play out your play lustily; for indeed, tricks and dal-
- ↑ Vol. III., p. 1063.
