6310
Georgetown Pike •
McLean,
VA 22101 • 703-442-7557
A visit to the Claude Moore
Colonial Farm is a visit to another world ...the world
of an 18th Century family living on a small,
low-income farm just prior to the Revolutionary War.
Colonial Day Resources
from Claude Moore Colonial Farm
Popular 18th Century
Games:
Fox & Geese
In colonial times, this
game was played by two people on a checkerboard with 17 geese and a fox. The goal of the
game is to "shut up' the fox so that it cannot move. The fox moves in a straight line
in any direction. The geese move only forwards or sideways. The fox may jump a goose and
remove it from the board, but the geese may not jump a fox. The fox wins if it breaks the
line of geese in front of it; it loses if it is cornered and blocked in.
Today this game is played as a form of solitaire
in which thirty two pegs are placed on the board so that only the fox's starting position
in the center is empty. The player then jumps, removing the peg that was passed over. Play
continues until only one peg remains on the board. The player wins the game if the last
move puts the last peg into the fox hole. Only one peg may be moved at a time, and no peg
may jump another unless it stands next to it without an intervening hole.
