Gaming raged throughout Society at this time, and it was even declared
that young ladies were taught whist and casino at fashionable
boarding-schools, where their "winning ways" were cultivated in
this direction. One schoolmistress, it was averred, was in despair
at the dullness of her pupils, who were quite unable to grasp the
comparatively easy intricacies of faro. Gillray was quick to grasp
the opportunity which such a state of affairs afforded to his powers
of satire, and was pitiless in his caricatures of female gamblers.
"Faro's Daughters, or the Kenyonian Blow-up to Gamblers," published
in 1796, was one of the most striking of these. In this Lady Archer
and Mrs. Concannon were shown in the pillory, upbraiding one another.
Lord Kenyon had made some very scathing comments upon the vice of
gaming during a recent trial to recover fifteen pounds won at play on
a Sunday, and had declared that the highest society was setting the
worst example to the lowest, being under the impression that it was too
great for the law. He himself, he added, should the opportunity arise,
would see that any gamblers brought before him, whatever their rank or
station, should be severely dealt with if convicted, and though they
might be the first ladies in the land they should certainly exhibit
themselves in the pillory.
Gambling in the West End of London amongst ladies had indeed become
a public scandal, and in due course the authorities found themselves
bound to take action.
In 1797 a regular crusade was made against faro, and the Countess
of Buckinghamshire, Lady Elizabeth Luttrell, Mrs. Mary Sturt, Mr.
Concannon, and Mr. O'Burne, were charged at Marlborough Street with
having "played at a certain fraudulent and unlawful game called faro,
at the house of the Earl of Buckinghamshire, in St. James's Square."
With them was also charged Henry Martindale, who had financed the
bank--the four or five people employed to run the table were each paid
half a guinea a night by him, tenpence out of which was deducted for
the use of the maids.
A witness, Joseph Evatt by name, deposed that he had seen Lady
Buckinghamshire play every Monday and Friday, as regular as the days
came. Her ladyship, said he, used to continue _punting_ and betting,
paying and receiving, from night till morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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