enormities.


[68] `Refexions sur l'Homme.'


`Till near the commencement of the present century the favourite
game was Faro, and as it was a decided advantage to hold the
Bank, masters and mistresses, less scrupulous than Wilberforce,
frequently volunteered to fleece and amuse the company. But
scandal having made busy with the names of some of them, it
became usual to hire a professed gamester at five or ten guineas
a night, to set up a table for the evening, just as any operatic
professional might now-a-days be hired for a concert, or a band-
master for a ball.

`Faro gradually dropped out of fashion; Macao took its place;
Hazard was never wanting; and Whist began to be played for stakes
which would have satisfied Fox himself, who, though it was
calculated that he might have netted four or five thousand a year
by games of skill, complained that they afforded no excitement.

`Wattier's Club, in Piccadilly, was the resort of the Macao
players. It was kept by an old _maitre d'hotel_ of
George IV., a character in his way, who took a just pride in the
cookery and wines of his establishment.

`All the brilliant stars of fashion (and fashion was power then)
frequented Wattier's, with Beau Brummell for their sun. `Poor
Brummell, dead, in misery and idiotcy, at Caen! and I remember