e
nights the two brothers--the eldest not _twenty-five_ years of age--lost
L32,000!(128)

(128) Timbs, _ubi supra._

On one occasion Stephen Fox was dreadfully fleeced at a gaming house at
the West End. He entered it with L13,000, and left without a farthing.

Assuredly these Foxes were misnamed. _Pigeons_--dupes of sharpers at
play--would have been a more appropriate cognomen.

WILBERFORCE AND PITT.

These eminent statesmen were gamesters at one period of their lives.
When Wilberforce came to London in 1780, after his return to Parliament,
his great success signalized his entry into public life, and he was at
once elected a member of the leading clubs--Miles' and Evans', Brookes',
Boodle's, White's, and Goosetree's. The latter was Wilberforce's usual
resort, where his friendship with Pitt--who played with characteristic
and intense eagerness, and whom he had slightly known at
Cambridge--greatly increased. He once lost L100 at the Faro table.

'We played a good deal at Goosetree's,' he states, and I well remember
the intense earnestness which Pitt displayed when joining in these games
of chance. He perceived their increasing fascination, and soon after
abandoned them for ever.'

Wilberforce's own case is thus recorded by his biographers, on the
authority of his private Journal:--'We can have no play to-night,'
complained some of the party at the club, 'for St Andrew is not here to
keep bank.' 'Wilberforce,' said Mr Bankes, who never joined himself, 'if
you will keep it I will give you a guinea.' The playful challenge was
accepted, but as the game grew deep he rose the winner of L600. Much of
this was lost by those who were only heirs to fortunes, and therefore
could not meet such a call without inconvenience. The pain he felt at
their annoyance cured him of a taste which seemed but too likely to
become predominant.

Goosetree's being then almost exclusively composed of incipient orators
and embryo statesmen, the call for a gambling table there may be
regarded as a decisive proof of the universal prevalence of the vice.

'The first time I was at Brookes',' says Wilberforce, 'scarcely knowing
any one, I joined, from mere shyness, in play at the Faro tables,
where George Selwyn kept bank. A friend, who knew my inexperience, and
regarded me as a victim decked out for sacrifice, called to me--"What,
Wilberforce, is that you?" Selwyn quite resented the interference,
and, turning to him, said in his most exp