One night in 1686, Christine Trask, a neighbor, stormed into the tavern and threw the shovelboard pieces into the fire. ❋ Maggiemac (2008)
She disregarded the laws governing tavern hours, and stayed open late into the night, allowing her customers, some only in their teens, to drink and play the forbidden game of shovelboard, carousing loudly enough to disturb the neighbors' sleep. ❋ Maggiemac (2008)
Sits next to her: No, no, but I hear only that you go to the tavern every night, and play shovelboard with the Deputy Governor, and they give you cider. ❋ Miller, Arthur (1953)
ABIGAIL: I have once or twice played the shovelboard. ❋ Miller, Arthur (1953)
And a new smooth shovelboard, whereon no victuals ne'er stood; ❋ Various (N/A)
Henry Cabot Lodge says the shovelboard of Shakespeare's time was almost the only game not expressly prohibited. ❋ Alice Morse Earle (1881)
And then she told that she was born in a farmhouse like that on the hill, and would like to know if they roasted groats and played at shovelboard there still; and ended by showing them her little silver tankard, which her godfather the jolly miller had given her, and out of which her elder sister, who had never taken kindly to tea, had drunk her ale and her aniseed water. ❋ Sarah Tytler (1870)
The shilling of Edward the Sixth acquired this popular name from being so large and flat, that it was found convenient for use in the game of shovelboard. ❋ Emily Sarah Holt (1864)
Ay -- an Edward shovelboard [Note 5], and a new shilling o 'King James, and three groats o' Queen Bess -- that's not fairy silver, I 'count. ❋ Emily Sarah Holt (1864)
Then we had chess for those who played it, whist, cribbage, books, backgammon, and shovelboard. ❋ Unknown (1842)
A young Levite -- such was the phrase then in use -- might be had for his board, a small garret, and ten pounds a year, and might not only perform his own professional functions, might not only be the most patient of butts and of listeners, might not only be always ready in fine weather for bowls, and in rainy weather for shovelboard, but might also save the expense of a gardener, or of a groom. ❋ Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay (1829)
And could any thing be more opposite to the whole spirit of Protestantism than the notion that a certain preternatural power of judging in spiritual cases was vouchsafed to a particular caste, and to that caste alone; that such men as Selden, as Hale, as Boyle, were less competent to give an opinion on a collect or a creed than the youngest and silliest chaplain who, in a remote manor house, passed his life in drinking ale and playing at shovelboard? ❋ Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay (1829)
He is never drunk as some are, nor wastin’ his time at the shovelboard, but always at his work. ❋ Miller, Arthur (1953)
There was a good supply of ne’er-do-wells in Salem, who dallied at the shovelboard in Bridget Bishop’s tavern. ❋ Miller, Arthur (1953)
[The game of shovelboard was played by two players (each provided with five coins) on a smooth heavy table. ❋ Samuel Pepys (1668)
