College acquaintance in the foolish practice of playing for more than they could afford.

Attwood, the English musician, informs us that when placed under Mozart he frequently played a game with him, his teacher being far more ready to indulge in this pastime than to give him a lesson. But few games have possessed a greater fascination for great men than billiards, and it may be remembered how Louis XIV. amused himself in this manner, particularly in the winter evenings, when he played with M. le Vendôme or M. le Grand, sometimes with Le Maréchal de Villeroy, and occasionally with the Duc de Grammont. It appears, too, that the King heard so many reports of Chamillart's skill in playing, that he requested M. le Grand to bring him one evening, and, to his success as a player, his good fortune in the state has been attributed.

In the early years of George III.'s reign London possessed only two well-known houses. for billiards-one in Pall Mall, the other at the corner of the Piazza, Russell Street, Covent Garden. The latter rooms were kept by the celebrated player, Abraham Carter, whose chief competitor was the famous amateur Andrews. This individual habitually breakfasted, dined, and supped, upon tea and buttered toast, in order that he might have the greatest possible supply

of nervous energy for the beloved game in which he won infinite honour." Another eminent billiardplayer of the same period was Mr. Dew, whose instructions for the game, have been incorporated in Hoyle's Games.

An amusing anecdote is told of Lord Chesterfield. When staying at Bath he amused himself sometimes at billiards with a well-known gamester of the name of Lookup. On one occasion, by an artful ruse, Lookup, after winning a game or two, asked his lordship how many he would give, if he were to put a patch over one eye. His lordship agreed to give him five, and Lookup having won several games in succession, Lord Chesterfield threw down his mace, declaring that he considered his antagonist played as well with one eye as with two. "I don't wonder at it, my lord," replied Lookup, " for I have only seen out of one these ten years." It is not surprising that Lord Chesterfield was deceived for the eye of which Lookup had lost the use appeared as perfect as the other, even to a near observer.

It was great sport, we are told, to watch George Payne and old Admiral Rous at billiards, and to listen to their comments on each other's play. Indeed, tidings that the Admiral and George Payne were playing together would any night send the Turf Club men flocking upstairs.

CHAPTER II.

RECREATIONS.

William Pitt-Prior-Thomas Warton-Porson-ElmsleyTurner Bishop Corbet - George Selwyn - Charles Mathews-Dr. Paley-Lord Macaulay-Charles Lamb -Douglas Jerrold-Curran-Dr. Battie-Lord Stowell -Shelley-Robert Stephenson-Edmund Kean-Lord Westbury-Vice-Chancellor Shadwell-Lord ByronT. Assheton Smith-Lord Hatherley-Sydney Smith— Warren Hastings-Sir Thomas Munro-David Garrick -Charles Lever-Third Earl Spencer-Charles James Fox-Gibbon-Goldsmith-Faraday-Sir Charles Barry

-James Brindley.

It is curious to note how many men have in their leisure moments found a strange pleasure in recreation of an almost eccentric kind. Thus it has been remarked that the contrast between a great man, as he appears to the world, and as he is seen in private life, was never more strikingly illustrated than in the case of the younger Pitt. "When he was at Walmer," writes Lady Hester Stanhope," he used to go to a farm were hay and corn were kept for the horses. He had a room

fitted up there with a table and two or three chairs. Oh, what slices of bread-and-butter I have seen him eat there, and hunches of breadand-cheese big enough for a ploughman! He used to say that whenever he could retire from public life he would have a good English woman cook. To see him at table with vulgar sea captains, and ignorant militia colonels, with two or three servants in attendance-he who had been accustomed to a servant behind each chair, to all that was great and distinguished in Europe-one might have supposed that disgust would have worked some change in him; but it was always the same. On one occasion Sir Edward Knatchbull took him to the Ashford ball, to show him off to the yeomen, and their wives. Though sitting in the room, in all his senatorial seriousness, he observed everything, and nobody could give a more lively account of the ball than he. He told who was fond of a certain captain, how Mr. R. was dressed, how Miss Jones, Miss Johnson, or Miss Anybody danced."

In the same way, many men who have been famous for their polish and culture have in their play-hours experienced a fascinating amusement in associating with their inferiors. Prior, for instance, "one of the most elegant of our minor poets, the companion of princes and diplomatists,

constantly passed whole evenings in chatting with a common soldier and his slattern wife in a low public-house in Long Acre.

"Thomas Warton, the historian of English poetry, and a singularly refined scholar, was often to be found in sordid taverns joking and being joked. Porson and Elmsley had similar propensities. So also had Turner, the painter."* It is also recorded how Bishop Corbet passed his lighter hours. It appears that when the business of the day was over, he delighted to descend with his favourite, and faithful, chaplain and companion, Dr. Lushington, into the cellar of the episcopal palace. The bishop would then doff his hood, saying, "There lies the doctor." He would then divest himself of his gown, adding, "There lies the bishop." The glasses were filled and the toast was drunk, "Here's to thee, Lushington." "Here's to thee, Corbet."

Few idiosyncrasies were more curious than that of George Selwyn, who took a morbid, and eager, interest in human suffering, united with a passionate taste for witnessing criminal executions. Not only was he a constant frequenter of such scenes of horror, but all the details of crime, the private history of the criminal, and his demeanour *Temple Bar," lxiii., 358.