Certainly nothing else in
London, from St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey and the Tower to
our Picture Galleries and Crystal Palace, not even the Duke of
Wellington's Equestrian Statue, elicited such praise from him as
"very nice," at least as applied to any inanimate object.
Louis Paulsen arriving from America in 1861, at once visited
the Divan and played twelve games blindfold simultaneously
there against a very powerful team amid much enthusiasm, it
being the earliest exhibition among us on so large a scale. Morphy
had in 1858 played eight games blindfold both in Birmingham
and Paris. This was 63 years after Philidor's exhibition of two
games blindfold (and one over the board) a performance then
thought marvellous, and which it was predicted would not be
believed or attempted in any future generation. However we read
of A. McDonnell playing without seeing the board and men in
1830. Bilguer in like manner did so sometime before his death
in 1841. La Bourdonnais in 1842, and Harrwitz at Hull in 1847,
but neither more than two games. Paulsen in the West of America
1855-6-7, was the first to accomplish ten or twelve games blindfold,
which he did with very marked success.
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