A MYSTERIOUS SET OF PLAYING CARDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 44, 20 August 1938, Page 27

A MYSTERIOUS SET OF PLAYING CARDS

A complete set of Elizabethan geo- j graphical playing cards is one of the most interesting of the British Museum's recent acquisitions, says a writer in the "Daily Telegraph and" Morning Post." It presents a piquant puzzle, as it is not known for what game the pack of 60 cards was used. It is hand-coloured and consists of numbered cards representing the counties of England—including "Denshire" for Devorishire and "Hantshire"—-with a brief description. In addition, there are cards bearing the Royal arms, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, a, bird'seye view of London, and cards bearing verses describing legeridary British history. The pack was designed by "W. 8." in 1590. It is mainly based on Christopher Saxton's atlas of the counties of Eng<land and Wales in 1579, but the bird's- j eye view is from a much earlier map. j Above and under Queen Elizabeth's portrait is the following: This mayden queene like Debora doth ralgn. She by hlr wisdom and hlr constant zeale; In peace and plentie doth gods worde malntaine, Would god I could hir vertues all feveale. Twlse slxteene years ye acepter In hlr hand No traitors could, nor fprraine foes wrest out: Great warres abrode, yet god defends hlr land, Lord, let thy angells compasse hir aboute. The'pack is seventy years earlier than any English playing cards iri the* Museum, and had previously been, known only by an imperfect set in', the, library of the Royal Geographical I

Society. It has been suggested that the cards were used to teach children geography. A considerable number of prints and drawings has been presented by Mrs. C. Newton Robinson from the collection of the late Sir J. C. Robinson. Many were his own work, but there are some by Thomas Stothard, including an amazing plan for a memorial of Fox, in which the statesman, seated,, looks upward, while allegorical neo-! classical figures hold a laurel wreath above his head. ! A number of rare fifteenth-century volumes of French printing have been presented by Sir Charles Sherrington, who has previously made similar gifts. Sir Stephen Gaselee has given the autograph MS. of "Ann Morgan's Wife," a partly autobiographic poem by the late A; J. Munby. Seals of King George VI for the Duchy and County Palatine of Lancaster have been presented by the Chancellor of the Duchy. One of the most important loans to the Museum for. a long time is the Kingston brooch, acknowledged to be the most magnificent jewel ever taken but of English soil. It date's from the sixth century A.D., and is decorated with garnet, lapis lazuli, and shell- * work. It was discovered in Kent in [1771. It has been lent by the Free . Public Museum of Liverpool and is in I the prehistoric room.