"So completely has gambling got the better of dancing, that at a private Ball, last week, a Gentleman asking a young Lady, from Bath, to dance the two next dances, she very ingenuously replied,'Yes, if you will play two rubbers at Cassino.'"--(_Times, Dec. 22, 1797._) * * * * * "Gaming, that hydra of calamities, has again made its appearance with its black catalogue of horrors. Notwithstanding the late interference of the Police, there are at present, exclusive of subscription tables, no less than 18 public gambling houses, at the West End of the Town. The golden table in Leicester Square takes the lead in guilty pre-eminence. The _gaming crimps_ are already very numerous. They dress well, frequent the most fashionable taverns, and coffee houses, and, having succeeded in insinuating themselves into company, take an opportunity of introducing a card, or bill of fare, of their respective establishments."--(_Times, Sept. 13, 1798._) * * * * * "Last week 1272 packs of cards, _unstamped_, pretended to be made for exportation, but really intended for home consumption, were burned in the High Street of Shoreham, by order of the Commissioners."--(_Times, Dec. 6, 1798._) * * * * * "In every part of the Metropolis, that most destructive game of E. O.[5] is now in high practice, but more particularly so in the neighbourhood of S. James's Street, Pall Mall, and what is called the fashionable end of the town. The Tables, even if they were fairly constructed, must be the ruin of all adventurers; because, in the course of one hour, they play at a game where the Table has clearly _one hundred and twenty-four_ chances to _one_ in its favor within that hour. If this does not rouse the Magistracy, Justice may then be announced to be in a somniferous state--occasioned probably, by a yellow mineral application."--(_Times, June 22, 1795._)