y day; and sometimes
buffoons and mountebanks hire the Riding House and do their tricks and
tumbling there. The trees are still there, and the gravel walks round
which the poor old sinner was trotted. I can fancy the flushed faces of
the royal princes as they support themselves at the portico pillars, and
look on at old Norfolk's disgrace; but I can't fancy how the man who
perpetrated it continued to be called a gentleman.

From drinking, the pleased Muse now turns to gambling, of which in his
youth our prince was a great practitioner. He was a famous pigeon for the
play-men; they lived upon him. Egalite Orleans, it was believed, punished
him severely. A noble lord, whom we shall call the Marquis of Steyne, is
said to have mulcted him in immense sums. He frequented the clubs, where
play was then almost universal; and, as it was known his debts of honour
were sacred, whilst he was gambling Jews waited outside to purchase his
notes of hand. His transactions on the turf were unlucky as well as
discreditable: though I believe he, and his jockey, and his horse Escape,
were all innocent in that affair which created so much scandal.

Arthur's, Almack's, Bootle's, and White's were the chief clubs of the
young men of fashion. There was play at all, and decayed noblemen and
broken-down senators fleeced the unwary there. In Selwyn's _Letters_ we
find Carlisle, Devonshire, Coventry, Queensberry, all undergoing the
probation. Charles Fox, a dreadful gambler, was cheated in very late
times--lost 200,000_l._ at play. Gibbon tells of his playing for twenty-two
hours at a sitting, and losing 500_l._ an hour. That indomitable punter
said that the greatest pleasure in life, after winning, was losing. What
hours, what nights, what health did he waste over the devil's books! I was
going to say what peace of mind; but he took his losses very
philosophically. After an awful night's play, and the enjoyment of the
greatest pleasure but _one_ in life, he was found on a sofa tranquilly
reading an Eclogue of Virgil.

Play survived long after the wild prince and Fox had given up the
dice-box. The dandies continued it. Byron, Brummell--how many names could I
mention of men of the world who have suffered by it! In 1837 occurred a
famous trial which pretty nigh put an end to gambling in England. A peer
of the realm was found cheating at whist, and repeatedly seen to practise
the trick called _sauter la coupe_. His friends at the clubs saw him
cheat,