Whist is first described by Charles Cotton in his "The Compleat Gamester", published in London in 1674. It appears again in Seymour's "Court Gamester" of 1719, and we know that whist was played in some coffee houses in London. About 1728, a group led by the first Lord Folkestone played in Crown's coffee house in Bedford Row, London. They began to develop its potential as a partnership game.