mistake gave rise to a new anecdote or some droll remark."

On another occasion when he was playing whist a member of his household was about to retire to rest, when Lever whispered, "Don't go, I'm winning; the luck may turn if you withdraw." That night he retrieved some previous losses, winning not less than £200. Many such anecdotes are told of him, most of which illustrate his genial, humorous nature.

Nothing provoked him so much as to find men who took no interest in the game, for he would remind them of the terrible warning of Talleyrand, impressing upon them "how much of human nature that would otherwise be unprofitable can be made available by whist! What scores of tiresome old twaddlers are there who can still serve their country as whisters! What feeble intelligences that can flicker out into a passing brightness at the sight of the turned trump !'" "Think of this," he added, warmly, "and think what is to become of us when the old, the feeble, the tiresome, and the interminable will all be thrown broadcast over society without any object or an occupation. Imagine what bores will be let loose upon the world, and fancy how feeble will be all efforts of wit or pleasantry to season a mass of such incapables!"

It would seem, too, that when through illhealth Lever lost his spirits he still retained his love of whist. Thus Sir Henry James writes:-"In September, 1871, I paid him a visit at Trieste, which lasted some three or four days. He was residing there with his daughters, Miss Lever, and Mrs. Watson. He was suffering much from gout, and was by no means in good spirits. He rarely exercised his anecdotal power, and his chief pleasure seemed to be in playing whist."

Piquet was the favourite game of Captain Marryat. But this pastime did not take him away from his home. Indeed, as Florence Marryat tells us in the biography of her father, it was one of the attractions of his home, causing him to teach his children to play it sufficiently well to be his opponents. But, in order that their interest, in the performance, might emulate his own, the stake invariably consisted of sugar plums, which were provided by himself.

On the other hand, amongst those who have discouraged card-playing may be mentioned the famous John Locke, who, in his "Treatise on Education," says:-"As to cards and dice, I think the safest, and best, way is never to learn any play upon them, and so to be incapacitated for those dangerous temptations and incroaching

wasters of useful time." Le Clerc * relates an amusing anecdote respecting Locke. Three or four men of rank met him by appointment at the house of Lord Ashley, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, and, before there had been any time for conversation, cards were introduced, and the visitors sat down to play. Locke, after looking on awhile, drew out his tablets and sat down to write; whereupon one of the company, observing how he was employed, asked him what he was writing. "My lord," replied he, "I am endeavouring to profit as much as I can from your company, for having impatiently longed to be present at a meeting of the most sensible, and witty, men of the day, and having at last that good fortune, I thought that I could not do better than write down your conversation. I have, indeed, here put down the substance of what has been said for the last hour or two." The satire was immediately felt, and the players quitted the game.

General Wolfe, when a young man, writing to his mother on the subject of card-playing, very sensibly says: "Though I am not particularly fond of cards myself, yet I think they are seasonable, and innocent, instruments of diversion, and I am always sorry when I suffer myself to censure

"Eloge de Mr. Locke dans la Bibliothèque Choisie," tom. vi., 357.

any entertainment that is quite harmless because it is not to my taste."

Dean Milner gave up playing at cards long before he entertained any thoughts respecting their propriety or the reverse, because, he says, "it ran away with time which would otherwise have been better employed." He further used to add, "my fingers were so often stained by operations in the laboratory, that I was really ashamed to exhibit them."

But although, from religious and other reasons, card-playing has found antagonists among our eminent men in past years, it has afforded harmless and beneficial amusement to the majority of our intellectual workers. So long as prudence, and moderation, influence this pleasing diversion, there is little fear of its forfeiting the popularity which it has rightly earned.

VOL. I.

G

CHAPTER IV.

FIELD SPORTS.

Duke of Wellington-Sir C. J. Napier-Peter BeckfordDuke of Cleveland-William Pitt-Lord Raglan-Lord Eldon-C. J. Fox-Lord Cardigan-Marquis Clanricarde-Anthony Trollope-Charles Kingsley-Whyte Melville - Assheton Smith-Earl Fitzwilliam - John Leech-Lord Mayo-Lord Fitzhardinge-Earl WiltonSir Tatton Sykes--John Metcalf-Rev. John Russell— Sir Francis Chantrey-Sheridan-Sydney Smith-Lord Malmesbury Horatio Ross-W. E. Forster-Lord Eversley-Lord Westbury-Tom Hood.

THE pleasures of the chase, whilst forming some of the most charming scenes in the literature of the past, have always held one of the highest places of honour amongst our national sports. The records of the hunting-field of to-day simply re-echo the practices of bygone years, when the same enthusiastic love of adventure afforded an attractive inducement, for leaving the weightier matter of life, in search of the pleasures of the field.

Thus, in the fourteenth century, an occupant of