England -- Social life and customs; Gambling -- Great Britain
“Mr Garrow, on a former occasion, charged Atkinson with using
_dispatches_, that is, _loaded dice_, which in, five minutes, would
dispatch £500 out of the pocket of any young man when intoxicated with
champagne.”
“_Jan. 26, 1798._ A notice came on in the King’s Bench, Cornet William
Moore, 3rd Dragoon Guards, _v._ Captain Hankey. The former had won off
the latter, at play, £14,000, for which Hankey had given his bond; but
a Court of Inquiry having declared that Moore had cheated him out of
it, he made his application to set aside the bond.”
It will be remembered that in that famous prosecution, in 1797, of
Lady Buckinghamshire and her friends, their manager, Henry Martindale,
was fined £200. Next year he was bankrupt, and we read that “The debts
proved under Mr Martindale’s commission amounted to £328,000, besides
Debts of Honour, which were struck off to the amount of £150,000.”
“His failure is said to be owing to misplaced confidence in a
subordinate, who robbed him of thousands. The first suspicion was
occasioned by his purchasing an estate of £500 a year, but other
purchases followed to a considerable extent, and it was soon discovered
that the Faro Bank had been robbed, sometimes of two thousand guineas a
week!
“On the 14th of April 1798, other arrears to a large amount were
submitted to and rejected by the Commissioners, who declared a first
dividend of one shilling and fivepence in the pound.”
“The Right Honourable Charles James Fox had an old gambling debt to
pay to Sir John Lade. Finding himself in cash after a lucky run at
Faro, he sent a complimentary card to the knight, desiring to discharge
the claim. Sir John no sooner saw the money than he called for pen and
ink, and began to figure. ‘What now,’ cried Fox. ‘Only calculating the
interest,’ replied the other. ‘Are you so,’ coolly rejoined Charles,
and pocketed the cash.’ I thought it was a debt of honour. As you seem
to consider it a trading debt, and as I make it an invariable rule
to pay my Jew creditors last, you must wait a little longer for your
money.’”
Before leaving the eighteenth century, let us hear what Col. Hanger[37]
(4th Lord Coleraine) says of private gambling in his time, and
undoubtedly he mixed in the very highest society. “If a gentleman in
these days has but a few guineas in his purse, and will walk directly
up to the Faro table, he will be the most welcome guest in the house;
it is not necessary for him to speak, or even bow, to a single lady
in the room, unless some unfortunate woman at the gaming-table ask
him politely for the loan of a few guineas; then his answer need be
but short—‘No, Dolly, no; can’t’; for this ever will be received as
wit, though the unfortunate lady’s bosom may be heaving, not from the
tenderer passions, but with grief and despair at having lost the last
farthing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account