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The Gaming Table-Vol. 1-Part3_Andrew Steinmetz(1816-1877)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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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 a _box-keeper_.



`It is not denied but most gamesters have, at one time or other,

a considerable run of winning, but such is the infatuation of



play, I could never hear of a man that gave over a winner--I

mean, to give over so as never to play again. I am sure it is



_rara avis_, for if you once "break bulk," as they phrase it,

you are in again for all. Sir Humphry Foster had lost the



greatest part of his estate, and then playing, as it is said,

_FOR A DEAD HORSE_, did, by happy fortune, recover it again; then



gave over, and wisely too.'[13]

[13] Harleian Misc. ii. 108.



The sequel will show the increase of gambling in our country

during the subsequent reigns, up to a recent period.



Thus, then, the passion of gaming is, and has ever been,

universal. It is said that two Frenchmen could not exist even in



a desert without _QUARRELLING;_ and it is quite certain that no

two human beings can be anywhere without ere long offering to



`bet' upon something. Indolence and want of employment--

`vacuity,' as Dr Johnson would call it--is the cause of the



passion. It arises from a want of habitualemployment in some

material and regular line of conduct. Your very innocent card-



parties at home--merely to kill _TIME_ (what a murder!) explains

all the apparent mystery! Something must be substituted to call



forth the natural activity of the mind; and this is in no way

more effectuallyaccomplished, in all indolent pursuits, than by



those _EMOTIONS AND AGITATIONS_ which gambling produces.

Such is the source of the thing in our _NATURE;_ but then comes



the furious hankering after wealth--the desire to have it without

_WORKING_ for it--which is the wish of so many of us; and



_THIS_ is the source of that hideous gambling which has

produced the contemptible characters and criminal acts which



are the burthen of this volume.

We love play because it satisfies our avarice,--that is to say,






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