A
Short Treatise on the Game of Whist by Englishman Edmond Hoyle, a barrister
and minor legal official in Ireland, was published in 1742. This was the
first book to systemize the rules of whist (The forerunner of bridge) and
remained the absolute authority for the game until its rules were changed in
1864. The author extended his range with Hoyle's Standard Games, which has
been republished hundreds of times and is available in paperback editions
today. The weight of Hoyle's authority through these works led to the phrase
according to Hoyle. This phrase not only became a proverbial synonym for the
accuracy of game rules but an idiom for correctness in general ("Let's do
everything according to Hoyle.") History tells us litlle about edmond Hoyle,
but he enjoyed his eponymous fame for many years, living until 1769, when he
died at age ninetyseven or so. Hoyle is responsible for populariziing the
term 'score" as a record of winning points in games. "When in doubt, win the
trick" is his latter book's most memorable phrase.