him in all his glory, cutting his jokes after the opera, at
White's, in a black velvet great-coat, and a cocked hat on his
well-powdered head.

`Nearly the same turn of reflection is suggested as we run over
the names of his associates. Almost all of them were ruined--
three out of four irretrievably. Indeed, it was the forced
expatriation of its supporters that caused the club to be broken
up.

`During the same period (from 1810 to 1815 or thereabouts) there
was a great deal of high play at White's and Brookes',
particularly at Whist. At Brookes' figured some remarkable
characters--as Tippoo Smith, by common consent the best Whist-
player of his day; and an old gentleman nicknamed Neptune, from
his having once flung himself into the sea in a fit of despair at
being, as he thought, ruined. He was fished out in time, found
he was not ruined, and played on during the remainder of his
life.

`The most distinguished player at White's was the nobleman who
was presented at the Salons in Paris as Le Wellington des Joueurs
(Lord Rivers); and he richly merited the name, if skill, temper,
and the most daring courage are titles to it. The greatest
genius, however, is not infallible. He once lost three thousand
four hundred pounds at Whist by not remembering that the seven of
hearts was in! He played at Hazard for the highest stakes that
any one could be got to play for with him, and at one time was
supposed to have won nearly a hundred thousand pounds; but _IT
ALL WENT_, along with a great deal more, at Crockford's.