The Gaming Table | Page 9

this particular it serves as a nursery for Tyburn, for
every year some of this gang march thither.
`Would you imagine it to be true--that a grave gentleman, well stricken
in years, insomuch as he cannot see the pips of the dice, is so infatuated
with this witchery as to play here with others' eyes,--of whom this

quibble was raised, "Mr Such a one plays at dice by the ear." Another
gentleman, stark blind, I have seen play at Hazard, and surely that must
be by the ear too.
`Late at night, when the company grows thin, and your eyes dim with
watching, false dice are often put upon the ignorant, or they are
otherwise cozened, with topping or slurring, &;c.; and, if you be not
vigilant, the box-keeper shall score you up double or treble boxes, and,
though you have lost your money, dun you as severely for it as if it
were the justest debt in the world.
`There are yet some genteeler and more subtle rooks, whom you shall
not distinguish by their outward demeanour from persons of condition;
and who will sit by a whole evening, and observe who wins; and then,
if the winner be "bubbleable," they will insinuate themselves into his
acquaintance, and civilly invite him to drink a glass of wine,--wheedle
him into play, and win all his money, either by false dice, as high
fulhams,[11] low fulhams, or by palming, topping, &c. Note by the
way, that when they have you at the tavern and think you a sure
"bubble," they will many times purposely lose some small sum to you
the first time, to engage you more freely to BLEED (as they call it) at
the second meeting, to which they will be sure to invite you.
[11] It appears that false dice were originally made at Fulham; hence so
called, high and low fulhams; the high ones were the numbers 4, 5, 6.
`A gentleman whom ill-fortune had hurried into passion, took a box
and dice to a side-table, and then fell to throwing by himself; at length
he swears with an emphasis, "D--e, now I throw for nothin;, I can win a
thousand pounds; but when I lay for money I lose my all."
`If the house find you free to box, and a constant caster, you shall be
treated below with suppers at night, and caudle in the morning, and
have the honour to be styled, "a lover of the house," whilst your money
lasts, which certainly will not be long.
`Most gamesters begin at small games, and by degrees, if their money
or estates hold out, they rise to great sums; some have played first all

their money, then their rings, coach and horses, even their wearing
clothes and perukes; and then, such a farm; and at last, perhaps a
lordship.
`You may read in our histories, how Sir Miles Partridge played at dice
with King Henry the Eighth, for Jesus Bells (so called), which were the
greatest in England, and hung in a tower of St Paul's church, and won
them; whereby he brought them to ring in his pocket; but the ropes
afterwards catched about his neck; for, in Edward the Sixth's days, he
was hanged for some criminal offences.[12]
[12] The clochier in Paul's Churchyard--a bell-house, four square,
builded of stone, with four bells; these were called Jesus Bells. The
same had a great spire of timber, covered with lead, with the image of
St Paul on the top, but was pulled down by Sir Miles Partridge, Kt, in
the reign of Henry VIII. The common speech then was that he did set
L100 upon a cast at dice against it, and so won the said clochier and
bells of the king. And then causing the bells to be broken as they hung,
the rest was pulled down, and broken also. This man was afterwards
executed on Tower Hill, for matters concerning the Duke of Somerset,
in the year 1551, the 5th of Edward VI.--Stowe, B. iii. 148.
`Sir Arthur Smithhouse is yet fresh in memory. He had a fair estate,
which in a few years he so lost at play, that he died in great want and
penury. Since that Mr Ba--, who was a clerk in the Six-Clerks Office,
and well cliented, fell to play, and won by extraordinary fortune two
thousand pieces in ready gold; was not content with that, played on,
lost all he had won, and almost all his own estate; sold his place in the
office, and at last marched off to a foreign plantation, to begin a new
world with the sweat of his brow; for that is commonly the destiny of a
decayed gamester--either to go to some foreign plantation, or to be
preferred to the dignity of