"
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We can find nothing in the form of evidence, as to whether
either of our four kings, the Georges, took any interest in chess,
or played at it. Some of our greatest men we hear, looked in
occasionally at the club in St. James St., to witness Philidor's
performances. Chatham, Fox, Pitt, Godolphin, Sunderland,
Rockingham, Wedderburn, St. John, Sir G. Elliott, and many
others, most distinguished and celebrated at the time, have been
specially mentioned as visitors or members. As only those who
know or care for the game subscribe to chess books, the three
hundred principal names on Philidor's edition of 1777, affords a
significant proof of the extraordinary appreciation and support of
the game, throughout the period of his ascendancy, viz., from
1746 to 1795.
Twenty-six ladies of title grace that list, which contains a large
proportion of the nobility, cabinet ministers, men distinguished in
science, and at the bar, and on the bench, and several eminent
divines.
Prince Leopold's support of chess, and encouraging remarks
concerning it at Oxford, in Scotland and at the Birkbeck, had
much to do with the taste for the game which sprung up among
the humbler working classes, and which happily has been
continuously though steadily progressing.
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