The connecting links of chess evidence and confirmation when
gathered together and placed in order form, combined so harmonious
a chain, that the progress of chess from Persia to Arabia and into
Spain has been considered as quite satisfactorily proved and
established by authorities deemed trustworthy, both native and
foreign, and are quite consistent with a fair summary up of the
more recent views expressed by the German writers themselves,
and with the reasonable conclusions to be deduced even from the
very voluminous but not always best selected evidence of
Van der Linde.

So much has a very lively interest in chess depended in modern
times upon the enthusiasm of individuals, that the loss of a single
prominent supporter or player, has always seemed to sensibly affect
it. This was notably felt on the death of Sir Abram Janssens and
Philidor towards the end of the last century, and of Count Bruhl,
Mr. G. Atwood and General Conway in this. During the last 15
years the loss of Staunton, Buckle, Cap. Kennedy, Barnes,
Cochrane and Boden, and yet more recently of such friends of
British chess as F. H. Lewis, I. C. H. Taylor and Captain
Mackenzie left a void, which in the absence of any fresh like
popular players and supporters, goes far to account for the
depression and degeneracy of first class chess in England.

Though the game is advancing more in estimation than ever, and
each succeeding year furnishes conclusive evidence of its
increasing progress, in twenty years more under present auspices,
a British Chess Master will be a thing of the past, and the
sceptre of McDonnell and of Staunton will have crumpled into dust,