Sarah's Chess Journal has additional information on Prince Andre of Mingrelia - for starters, see a post here "The Mingrelia Defence: The Jerome Gambit Contravened" as well as the more recent "The Mingrelia Defence Returns (Parts 1 & 2)".
Should you wish a defense to side-step the Jerome Gambit, you are welcome to try the Prince's 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Qf6, or even the thematically-related Greco defense, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6.
Today, I dropped in, again, to the very informal chess club that meets at a local library every-other-week - with hopes to play a Jerome Gambit.
At one point I noticed that all 4 games being played had a White pawn at d4, a White Knight at c3, and, eventually, a White pawn on e3. Must be a thing.
I had the Black pieces in my game, playing some kind of triangle defense (pawns at e6, d5, and c6) and pretty soon my opponent's pieces were charging toward my castled King like it was giving away free beer.
Fortunately for me, we had castled on opposite sides of the board, and my Queen vigorously pursued and checked his King until a position was reached for a third time, and I claimed a draw.
As he was down the exchange at the time, my opponent was puzzled that I would split the point when I my position was "better". I showed him a few attacking moves that he could make that would have swept my King off the board, and back into the box...
Ah, well, maybe next time.
