England -- Social life and customs; Gambling -- Great Britain
We get portraits of these two ladies in a satirical print by Gillray
(31st March 1792), which is entitled “Modern Hospitality, or a Friendly
Party in High Life,” where they are shewn keeping a Faro bank; and
as these fair ones were then somewhat _passées_, the picture has the
following:—“To those earthly Divinities who charmed twenty years
ago, this Honourable method of banishing mortifying reflections is
dedicated. O, Woman! Woman! everlasting is your power over us, for in
youth you charm away our hearts, and, in your after years, you charm
away our purses!” The players are easily recognised. Lady Archer,
who sits on the extreme left, has won largely; rouleaux of gold and
bank notes are before her, and, on her right hand, are two heaps of
loose gold: and the painted old gambler smiles as she shows her cards,
saying, “The Knave wins all!” Her next-door neighbour, the Prince of
Wales, who has staked and lost his last piece, lifts his hands and
eyes in astonishment at the luck. Lady Buckinghamshire has doubled her
stake, playing on two cards, and is, evidently, annoyed at her loss,
while poor, black-muzzled Fox laments the loss of his last three pieces.
Gillray portrayed these two ladies on several occasions. There are two
pictures of St James’s and St Giles’s, and in “Dividing the Spoil, St
James’s, 1796,” we see Lady Archer and Lady Buckinghamshire quarrelling
over gold, bank notes, a sword, and an order. One other lady, probably
Lady Mount Edgecumbe, is scrutinising a bill, whilst a fourth, with a
pile of gold and notes before her, looks on smilingly.
Another print (16th May 1796) is called “Faro’s Daughters, or the
Kenyonian Blow Up to Gamblers.” Here we see Lady Archer and Mrs
Concannon placed together in the pillory, where they are mutually
upbraiding each other. The _motif_ for this picture was a speech
of Lord Kenyon’s, who, at a trial to recover £15, won at gaming on
Sunday, at a public-house, commented very severely on the hold the
vice of gaming had on all classes of society, from the highest to the
lowest. The former, he said, set the example to the latter, and, he
added, “They think they are too great for the law; I wish they could
be punished”—and then continued, “If any prosecutions of this kind
are fairly brought before me, and the parties are justly convicted,
whatever be their rank or station in the country, though they be the
first ladies in the land, they shall certainly exhibit themselves in
the pillory.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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