CHESS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 14 July 1925, Page 6

CHESS.

: SPANISH ROMANCE, OR HOW CHESS CAME TO ENGLAND. It certainlv is a useful and eommendablo faculty to ee able to adapt oneself to one’ immediate circumstances and audience. Prime ministers, - clergymen, tramps and other professional and public men, undergo, so I understand, a special course of study in this most necessary attribute. Take, for instance, Mr. William Dodd. Dr. Dodd, lie came to be'called; subsequently “the unfortunate Dr. Dodd. ’ Dufortunate he certainly was, for he was born in Lincolnshire in 172!). The son of a clergyman, he became a clergyman ■himself. " Ilis ’ career was meteoric. Prom a nonentity he rose to be a Royal 'Chaplain. He established a homo for Magdalens, which weic paraded into church on .Sundays in Hull view of the congregation. It became quite as fashionable to go and hear Dodd and see the penitent Magdalens on the . first day of the week as it was to visit impenitent Magdalens on the other six. At a private or public dinner Dodd was in his element. His blessing—and he was always called upon to say grace—was carefully regulated according to the menu. A brief “Bless, 0 Lord, no pray ‘Thee’’ was quite sufficient for stewed rabbit, but let the tabic be weighted down with silver and tine linen, the courses be many and the wine list long, then Dodd literally rose to the occasion. With eyes and hands lifted Heavenward, his rich, deep, sonorous tones resounded throughout the ], a ll. “Bountiful .Jehovah, who has caused this table to groan with the abundant evidences of Thy goodness,” etc. The only circumstance the worthy Dodd did n t seem capable of making himself amenable to was his banking account. To live high when the income is low is a crossword puzzle of some difficulty. Dodd found an easy solution by carefully copying someone vise’s handwriting on ono of his own cheques. So engrossed was he in this exkiliarating pastime that quite accidentally he copied the signature also. -Quite absent-mindedly also, when passing the bank next day'he called in to show the teller. The bank was so pleased with his effort that they handed out to Mr. Dodd the sum of one hundred pounds, which, by a strange coincidence was the exact 'amount Dodd had copied into the body of the cheque. Xow as far .is Dodd was concerned — being somewhat of a bashful disposition—he would have been quite content to have let the matter rest where it was but the bank manager, a pompous, querulous, inquisitive individual, as bank managers so often are, sent the cheque to the Earl of Chesterfield (to whose account on the spur ot the moment the bank had debited the amount) and asked him what he thought of it. He didn’t think much of it. or about it, at all. He mde y told the bank manager lie was a blithering, blundering idiot and could go to the devil— nasty person this Earl d Chesterfield —and then sent the cheque on to the head-quarters of the London -police. The chief of police was even more interested than tho bank man-..o-er. He actually sent A special messenger in uniform Dodd, and insisted,■ being n kind-hearted man, that Mr. Dodd should" stay with him.

Later he, introduced Mr. Dodd, and the cheque, to Lord Burleigh, the Chief Justice, and twelve jurymen who happened to be in the room at the time. All though Dodd’s imitation of 'the Earl’s writing worthy of recognition, and awarded him first prize. He was found guilty of forgery, and the judge, a very hard, unsympathetic sort of man, sentenced him to be hanged at Tyburn, Which, lie was, so lie never said grace any more, which goes to show, not that- 'it is wrong to say grace, but to use another’s name when signing a cheque. I must admit all this has very little to do with chess, except that chess players, like the professional gentlemen quoted in the second paragraph, often find it necessary to adapt themselves to circumstances, whether on the board or off it, ■•which is precisely what I propose to do at this moment. Having contracted to write an article on “How Chess came to England” and, between ourselves, not really knowing how chess did actually come to England, I have had to use up such material as was available; for the rest, I hope that none of my readers know cither.

It was my original intention to have given an article this week on “Chess in History,” as a sort of opposite to last week’s “Chess in Mythology,”/ but a little volume in vellum, printed at Venice in 1573 lias been by undoing. And it was this wise. Before sitting down to write, I took a tour round my little den to collect some material—and just here let me say, I. never embark on this journey without calling to mind Thackeray’s verse, which runs something like this — “This poor little chamber is crammed in all nooks, With worthless old knieknaeks, and silly obi books, And foolish old odds, and foolish old ends, Cracked bargains from brokers, cheap keepsakes from friends.” And gathered up some half a dozen likely-looking sources of information, and commenced to investigate. One by one I went through' the volumes taken down, but as fate would have it, there was not a single book of aiiy assistance. The last, to lie examined was this little chap in vellum. Somehow he seemed to invite further acquaintanceship, so I opened him up. Alas, the language was Spanish. Not being a professor of languages, progress was slow. From tlie title page J learnt the book was a biography of one Daldassarc Cnstiglione. “Xow, I wonder,”’ mused I to myself, “Who tho Dickens was Baldassarc Cnstiglione, and why should someone in 1573 have gone to the trouble of writing and publishing a book about him?” .It is usually wise for one’s peace of mind to settle such questions at once, so I plunged. And this is what I learnt. Baldassarc Cnstiglione was an Italian, born in tho year 1478. Why, 1. don t know. He was, above everything (a gentleman; also a diplomatist, , an author, and an ardent player- and supporter of chess. About the year AD 1500 ho was sent by tlie Duke of: Urbino (one of the - Royal dukes of Italy) on a special ambassadorial mission to the Court of Henry VII. of England. En route, he passed through Spain, was entertained and feted at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella, taking forward with him their Majes-

ties’ “kind regards” to the English monarch.

Their daughter Catherine, it will be remembered, subsequently married Henry’s son, afterwards Henry VIII of “Bluebeard” fame. From all of which'we may be forgiven if we infer that Count Baldassarc Castigliom—as a gentleman should —gave a very glowing account of the good time spent at the Spanish Court, and the. fair charms of his host’s amiable daughter. I will not weary my readers with the story of just how I found out many of the details of the Count’s overland journey from Italy to England, but without digressing' further, will proceed to give some little account of an interesting episode which occurred at Madrid during the Count’s visit —how the Spanish king nearly committed a grave injustice, how Count Baldassarc Castiglione discovered two long lost relatives under romantic cireum stances, and how “All’s well that ends well.” To be continued next Tuesday. v - A. CLEMAS.