PREFACE
This little work is but a condensation and essence of a much
larger one, containing the result of what can be discovered
concerning the origin and history of chess, combined with
some of my own reminiscences of 46 years past both of chess play
and its exponents, dating back to the year 1846, the 18th of
Simpson's, 9 years after the death of A. McDonnell, and 6 after
that of L. de La Bourdonnais when chivalrous and first class
chess had come into the highest estimation, and emulatory matches
and tests of supremacy in chess skill were the order of the day.
English chess was then in the ascendant, three years before
Howard Staunton had vanquished St. Amant of France, and was
the recognized world's chess champion, while H. T. Buckle the
renowned author of the History of Civilization was the foremost
in skill among chess amateurs, Mr. W. Lewis and Mr. George
Walker the well known and prolific writers on chess, were among
the ten or twelve strongest players, but were seldom seen in the
public circle, Mr. Slous and Mr. Perigal were other first rate
amateurs of about equal strength. Mr. Daniels who attended
Simpson's had just departed.
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