The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)Steinmetz, Andrew
History
The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 1 (of 2)
Steinmetz, Andrew
Gambling
'His laws were so strictly enforced that he was styled "King of Bath:"
no rank would protect the offender, nor dignity of station condone
a breach of the laws. Nash desired the Duchess of Queensberry, who
appeared at a dress ball in an apron of point-lace, said to be worth 500
guineas, to take it off, which she did, at the same time desiring his
acceptance of it; and when the Princess Amelia requested to have one
dance more after 11 o'clock, Nash replied that the laws of Bath, like
those of Lycurgus, were unalterable. Gaming ran high at Bath, and
frequently led to disputes and resort to the sword, then generally worn
by well-dressed men. Swords were, therefore, prohibited by Nash in
the public rooms; still they were worn in the streets, when Nash, in
consequence of a duel fought by torchlight, by two notorious gamesters,
made the law absolute, "That no swords should, on any account, be worn
in Bath."'(114)
(114) The Book of Days, Feb. 3.
About the year 1739 the gamblers, in order to evade the laws against
gaming, set up E O tables; and as these proved very profitable to the
proprietors at Tunbridge, Nash determined to introduce them at Bath,
having been assured by the lawyers that no law existed against them.
He therefore set up an E O table, and the speculation flourished for a
short time; but the legislature interfered in 1745, and inflicted severe
penalties on the keepers of such tables. This was the ruin of Nash's
gambling speculation; and for the remaining sixteen years of his life he
depended solely on the precarious products of the gaming table. He died
at Bath, in 1761, in greatly reduced circumstances, being represented as
'poor, old, and peevish, yet still incapable of turning from his former
manner of life.'
'He was buried in the Abbey Church with great ceremony: a solemn hymn
was sung by the charity-school children, three clergymen preceded the
coffin, the pall was supported by aldermen, and the Masters of the
Assembly-Rooms followed as chief mourners; while the streets were
filled and the housetops covered with spectators, anxious to witness the
respect paid to the venerable founder of the prosperity of the city of
Bath.'(115)
(115) The Book of Days, Feb. 3.
The following are the chief anecdotes told of Beau Nash.
A giddy youth, who had resigned his fellowship at Oxford, brought his
fortune to Bath, and, without the smallest skill, won a considerable
sum; and following it up, in the next October added four thousand pounds
to his former capital. Nash one night invited him to supper, and offered
to give him fifty guineas to forfeit twenty every time he lost two
hundred at one sitting. The young man refused, and was at last undone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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