Stock Exchange and turf of the time, men and women frequented the
clubs and drawing-rooms where the excitement of gambling could be
enjoyed as they now flock to the race-course or telegraph to their
brokers in Throgmorton Street. The nobleman now enjoys his pleasure
side by side with the publican, and his example is followed by his
servants on the course. Gambling in Selwyn's time was more select--a
small society governed England and gambled in St. James's Street,
while in more democratic days peers, members, and constituents
pursue the same excitement together on the race-course or in the
City. Great as were the sums which were lost at commerce, hazard, or
faro, they were less than the training-stable, the betting-ring, and
the stock-jobber now consume; and the same influences which have
destroyed the Whig oligarchy and the King's friends have changed and
enlarged the manner and the habit of gambling in England.

Of Selwyn the humourist it would be easy to collect pages of
witticisms. Walpole's letters alone contain dozens of them, and
there is not a memoir of the eighteenth century in which is not to
be found one of "George's" jokes. Though often happy, as when seeing
Mr. Ponsonby, the Speaker of the Irish Parliament, parting freely
with bank-notes at Newmarket, he remarked, "How easily the Speaker
passes the money bills," or, as when Lord Foley crossed the Channel
to avoid his creditors, he drily observed that it was "a passover
not much relished by the Jews," yet their repetition now is
tiresome.

Manner and appearance assisted his wit, an impassive countenance hid
his humour so that his sallies surprised by their unexpectedness. He
knew how to appropriate opportunity, and saw the humour of a
situation. A reputation for wit is thus gained not only by what is