LIGHT COME, LIGHT GO [Illustration] MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD TORONTO [Illustration: THE TRENTE-ET-QUARANTE OF THE PAST. From a scarce print by Darcis. _Frontispiece._] LIGHT COME, LIGHT GO GAMBLING--GAMESTERS--WAGERS THE TURF BY RALPH NEVILL "D'un bout du monde A l'autre bout, Le Hasard seul fait tout." MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1909 CONTENTS I PAGE The gambling spirit inborn in mankind--Its various forms in reality identical--Resemblance of gamblers to the alchemists of old--Capriciousness of fortune--Importance of small advantages at play--An extraordinary run at hazard--Napoleon and Wellington little addicted to cards--Blücher's love of gaming--He wins his son's money--Avaricious gamesters--Anecdotes of the miser Elwes--Long sittings at the card-table--Modern instance in London--Two nights and a day at whist at the Roxburgh Club--Casanova's forty-two hour duel at piquet--Anecdotes of Fox, the Duke of Devonshire, Sir John Lade, Beau Nash, and others--Country houses lost at play--"Up now deuce and then a trey"--The Canterbury barber 1 II The spirit of play in the eighteenth century--The Duke of Buckingham's toast--Subscription-Houses, Slaughter-Houses, and Hells--The staff of a gaming-house--Joseph Atkinson and Bellasis--Raids on King's Place and Grafton Mews--Methods employed by Bow Street officers--Speculative insurance--Increase of gaming in London owing to arrival of _émigrés_--Gambling amongst the prisoners of war--The Duc de Nivernois and the clergyman--Faro and E.O.--Crusade against West-End gamblers--The Duchess of Devonshire and "Old Nick"--Mr. Lookup--Tiger Roche--Dick England--Sad death of Mr. Damer--Plucking a pigeon 38 III Former popularity of dice--The race game in Paris--Description of hazard--Jack Mytton's success at it--Anecdotes--French hazard--Major Baggs, a celebrated gamester of the past--Anecdotes of his career--London gaming-houses--Ways and methods of their proprietors--Ephraim Bond and his henchman Burge--"The Athenæum"--West-End Hells--Crockford's--Opinion of Mr. Crockford regarding play--The Act of 1845--Betting-houses--Nefarious tactics of their owners--Suppression in 1853 74 IV