says of old age, being an ever pleasant enjoyment to the greatest leaders of thought when failing health and declining years compel them to "retire from business.'

Dr. Johnson, it may be remembered, regretted that he had not learnt to play at cards, assigning as his reason:-"It is very useful in life; it generates kindness, and consolidates society." And yet, by one of those strange inconsistencies sometimes noticeable in eminent men, he thus writes in the tenth number of the Rambler:

My business has been to view, as opportunity has offered, every place in which mankind was to be seen; but at card-tables, however brilliant, I have always thought my visit lost; for I could know nothing of the company but their clothes and their faces." In the last century, however, the inordinate excess to which card-playing was carried in English society, "everyone-old and young, high and low-joining in this time-destroying passion," at times caused just censure even from those who did not profess to be stern moralists. Many, too, were not satisfied with playing for play's sake, forgetful of Lord Herbert's excellent advice to

Play not for gain, but sport.

Who plays for more

Than he can lose with pleasure, stakes his heart,
Perhaps his wife's, too, and whom she hath bore.

Addison, in the Spectator, muses upon the singularity of the taste of the card-player who devotes several hours in succession to this mode of killing time, and says: "I think it very wonderful to see persons of the best sense passing away a dozen hours together in shuffling, and dividing, a pack of cards, with no other conversation but what is made up of a few game phrases, or no ideas but those of black and red spots ranged together in different figures. Would not a man laugh to hear anyone of his species complaining that life is short ?"

Cowper, again, in his "Task," speaks of this widespread fashion, and tells us how

E'en misses, at whose age their mothers wore
The back-string and the bib, assume the dregs
Of womanhood, fit pupils in the school.
Of card-devoted time, and night by night,
Placed at some vacant corner of the board,

Learn'd every trick, and soon play all the game.

In the course of the last century whist became a fashionable game, and as such was played by the leading men of the day. Horace Walpole writes in December, 1781, to one of his constant correspondents, thus: "I was diverted last night at Lady Lucan's. The moment I entered she set me down to whist with Lady Bute; and who do you think were the other partners ?—the Archbishopress of Canterbury and Mr. Gibbon.

I

once saved Lady Suffolk at the Dowager Essex's from playing at the same table with Lady Yarmouth. I saw Lady Suffolk ready to sink, and took her cards from her, saying, 'I know your ladyship hates whist, and I will play instead of you.'

Gibbon, while at Lusanne, in his declining years, also tells us that after the morning had been occupied by the labours of the library he used to "unbend rather than exercise his mind," and, in the interval between tea and supper, was far from disdaining the innocent amusement of a game at cards.

Charles Fox played an admirable game both at whist and piquet, and with such skill, indeed, that it was generally admitted, at Brooks's Club, he might have made four thousand pounds a year, at these games, if he could have confined himself to them.

Another great whist-player was General Scott, the father-in-law of George Canning and the Duke of Portland, who was known to have won at White's £200,000, thanks to his notorious sobriety, and knowledge of the game. One reason of his success was his avoidance of those indulgences at the table which muddled other men's brains. By dining off such simple fare as boiled chicken, with toast and water, he sat down to the

whist-table with a clear head, and by the help of his remarkable memory, and his great coolness of judgment, seldom failed to be successful.

Dr. Parr's favourite game was whist. But no persuasion could induce him to depart from a resolution, which he adopted early in life, of never playing in any company whatever for more than a nominal stake. Upon one occasion only he had been induced, contrary to his will, to play with a certain bishop for a shilling, which he won. Pushing it carefully to the bottom of his pocket, and placing his hand upon it, with a kind of mock solemnity, "There, my lord bishop," said he, "this is a trick of the devil; but I'll match him. So now, if you please, we will play for a penny."

And this was ever after the amount of his stake. On another occasion, being engaged with a party in which he was unequally matched, he was asked by a lady how the fortune of the game turned, when he replied, "Pretty well, madam, considering that I have three adversaries."

Another skilful player at whist was Dr. Paley. Although he frequently mixed in card parties, yet he would at all times readily forego the game for conversation with an intelligent companion. A lady once observed to him, at a cardtable at Lincoln, "that the only excuse for their playing was that it served to kill time." "The

best defence possible, madam," replied he; though time in the end will kill us.'

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Sir Robert Peel was not above a game of cards, and in the "Life of Norman Macleod" (i., 71) there is a charming little anecdote illustrative of his social pleasantry when out of harness :

"One night Mr. Gaskill was at a party at the Duke of's. Peel, Wellington, and some others were playing whist. Croker was learning écarté at another table.

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Go,' said Peel, to one of his friends, 'go and ask if he ever learned the game before.'

"Never,' said Croker, upon my soul!'

"Well,' said Peel, to his friend, who returned, 'I'll bet in twenty minutes by my watch, Croker will tell his teacher that he does not know how to play.'

"In five minutes Croker was heard saying"Well, do you know, I should not have thought that the best way of playing.'

"This was received with a roar of laughter." The mention of the Duke of Wellington reminds us that although a card-player he was by no means a gamester. According to his own declaration, "in the whole course of his life he never won or lost twenty pounds at any game, and that he never played at hazard, or any game of chance, in any public place or club."

VOL. I.

He was, in fact, the

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