Lady of the Manor Solitaire

Moves: 0 Eight ace foundations build upward regardless of suit, and emptied tableau spaces are not refilled. N new game, R resume, F move focused card to a foundation, Esc clear

Lady of the Manor Guide

La Chatelaine played to the published rules

Lady of the Manor, also known as La Chatelaine or My Lady's Patience, is the older French patience that later inspired Archway Patience. David Parlett credited Archway as his facelift of this manor-style layout, opening the tableau for more planning while keeping the same broad objective.

What changes from Archway Solitaire

Lady of the Manor keeps the arch reserve and four central piles, but it starts with eight ace foundations instead of Archway's split ace-and-king foundations.

The second major change is that foundation building ignores suit. That single rule shift makes the game much more forgiving and helps explain its much higher published success rate.

Official data

  • Two-deck game type with no redeal.
  • Alternate names: La Chatelaine and My Lady's Patience.
  • Published difficulty: medium.
  • Published skill profile: mostly chance.
  • Published chance of winning: high, about 1 in 3 deals.

History

Lady of the Manor belongs to the La Chatelaine family of decorative 19th-century patience layouts. David Parlett later designed Archway as a modernized, more open descendant and explicitly credited Lady of the Manor as the original inspiration.

How to play

  1. Scan the exposed cards only. In Lady of the Manor, the only playable cards are the top card of each tableau pile and the top card of each reserve packet.
  2. Move cards to any foundation when they are exactly one rank higher than the current foundation top. Suit does not matter at all.
  3. The tableau is a one-way reveal area. You do not build there, and when a pile empties the space stays empty for the rest of the deal.
  4. The reserve arch is organised by rank from twos through kings. Move a reserve top card as soon as it becomes playable, because there is no redeal and no recovery move.

Rules

  • Two decks are used and there is no redeal.
  • All eight aces are removed from the stock first and become the foundations.
  • Each foundation builds upward from ace to king regardless of suit.
  • The tableau is four face-up piles of twelve cards, and only each top card is available for play.
  • There is no building in the tableau, and spaces are not filled once a pile is exhausted.
  • The reserve arch has twelve rank packets, from twos through kings, and only each packet top card is available for play.