The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 2 (of 2)Steinmetz, Andrew
History
The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims. Volume 2 (of 2)
Steinmetz, Andrew
Gambling
According to Captain Gronow, George Harley Drummond, of the famous
banking-house, Charing Cross, only played once in his whole life at
White's Club, at Whist, on which occasion he lost L20,000 to Brummell.
This even caused him to retire from the banking-house, of which he was a
partner.
'Walpole and a party of friends (Dick Edgecumbe, George Selwyn, and
Williams), in 1756, composed a piece of heraldic satire--a coat of arms
for the two gaming clubs at White's--which was "actually engraven from a
very pretty painting of Edgecumbe, whom Mr Chute, as Strawberry King at
Arms," appointed their chief herald-painter. The blazon is vert (for
a card-table); three parolis proper on a chevron sable (for a Hazard
table); two rouleaux in saltire between two dice proper, on a canton
sable; a white ball (for election) argent. The supporters are an old and
young knave of clubs; the crest, an arm out of an earl's coronet
shaking a dice-box; and the motto, Cogit amor nummi--"The love of money
compels." Round the arms is a claret-bottle ticket by way of order.'
6. WATTIER'S CLUB.
This great Macao gaming house was of short duration. Mr Raikes says of
it:--'The club did not endure for twelve years altogether; the pace was
too quick to last; it died a natural death in 1819, from the paralyzed
state of its members. The house was then taken by a set of blacklegs,
who instituted a common bank of gambling. To form an idea of the ruin
produced by this short-lived establishment among men whom I have so
intimately known, a cursory glance to the past suggests the following
melancholy list, which only forms a part of its deplorable results: none
of the dead reached the average age of man.' Among the members were Beau
Brummell and the madman Bligh.
7. CROCKFORD'S CLUB.
This once celebrated gaming house is now 'The Wellington,' where the
rattle of knives and forks has succeeded that of dice. It was erected in
1827, and at its opening it was described as 'the new Pandemonium--the
drawing-rooms, or real hell, consisting of four chambers: the first an
ante-room, opening to a saloon embellished to a degree which baffles
description; thence to a small curiously-formed cabinet or boudoir,
which opens to the supper-room. All these rooms are panelled in the most
gorgeous manner; spaces are left to be filled up with mirrors and silk,
or gold enrichments; while the ceilings are as superb as the walls.
A billiard-room on the upper floor completes the number of apartments
professedly dedicated to the use of the members. Whenever any secret
manoeuvre is to be carried on, there are smaller and more retired
places, both under this roof and the next, whose walls will tell no
tales.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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