Edmund Hoyle and Whist Etiquette

 

Originally the game was called “whisk”; it was Mr. Hoyle who, by his continual utterance of the imperative and hushing monosyllable “whist!” when gaming with those whose tongues were apt to wag irrelevantly, caused the diversion…

IT WAS ACCORDING TO HOYLE…

Great Master of Popular Game Responsible for Rechristening of Game of Whist

It was an agreeable spectacle to witness Edmund Hoyle (the master of whist, whose code of etiquette for the game has been accepted for six generations) drive up to the Three Pigeons tavern at noon in his white hackney coach with his emblem - the Ace of Hearts - blazoned on the panel. Hoyle was “a man of very speechless humor,” who was lured into the study of whist because it was a silent game, says Christopher Morley, in “The Power of Sympathy.”

Originally the game was called “whisk”; it was Mr. Hoyle who, by his continual utterance of the imperative and hushing monosyllable “whist!” when gaming with those whose tongues were apt to wag irrelevantly, caused the diversion, at first only in sport, and then in genuine interest, to be rechristened. 

The mornings he spent in tutoring wealthy ladies in the rudiments of the fashionable game, this being the chief source of his income. He was very particular, moreover, as to the standing and rank of his pupils; he was much in demand and could afford to take only such students as satisfied his fastidious taste for youth and beauty. – North County Times, 1923

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