At Brooks's are preserved a number of relics of the old gambling days,
including the faro table at which Fox played. This has a portion
cut away, in order, it is said, to give room for his portly form. A
complete set of the old gaming counters--the highest inscribed 500
guineas--is also here, whilst several prints and pictures (one of them
reproduced in these pages by the courtesy of the Committee) give a good
idea of a vanished day.
Brooks's was much frequented by a famous whist-player, General Scott,
the father-in-law of George Canning and the Duke of Portland, who is
said to have won about £200,000 at the game, of which he was a past
master.
The General, indeed, was a very shrewd man where all forms of
speculation were concerned, and once won a large wager at Newmarket
in the following way. Just as his horse was about to start for a
sweepstake, Mr. Panton called out to him, "General, I'll lay you a
thousand pounds your horse is neither first nor last." The General
accepted the bet and immediately gave directions to his rider; his
horse came in last, and he claimed the money. Mr. Panton objected to
payment, because the General had spoken to his rider; but the Jockey
Club held that the bet was laid not upon the chance of the place in
which the horse would come, if the rider was uninformed of it, but upon
the opinion, that he had not speed enough to be first, nor tractability
enough to be brought in last.
Nevertheless, the General, like most gamblers, had his moments of
generosity. He was playing one evening with the Count d'Artois and the
Duc de Chartres, at Paris, when a petition was brought up from the
widow of a French officer, stating her various misfortunes, and praying
relief. A plate was handed round, and each put in one, two, or three
louis d'or, but when it was held to the General, who was going to throw
for a stake of five hundred louis d'or, he said, "Stop a moment, if you
please, sir: here goes for the widow!" The throw was successful, and he
instantly swept the whole into the plate, and sent it down to her.
General Scott was an excellent whist-player, and lived in a
most careful manner, which gave him a great advantage over his
contemporaries, many of whom were reckless to a degree, tossing their
money about in all directions, and borrowing from any one when short of
cash.
General Scott followed a regime which assisted him to keep all his
faculties in the very best condition for getting the most out of
his cards. His dinner usually consisted of a boiled chicken, washed
down with toast and water. His memory, coolness, and judgment were
remarkable. With players such as these, whist became almost a religious
function of a singularly profitable kind.
At the present day, when whist has fallen from its ancient high estate,
and rendered practically obsolete owing to the popularity of bridge, it
is difficult to realise the place which the game held in the estimation
of many of our forefathers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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