Page:London spy, or, The frauds of London described (3).pdf/6

 thods of deluding and cheating are practised with success, viz. Gaming houses, Horse-races, Cock fighting, Bowling, Billiards, Tennis, Pharch Couger et nair, Hazard, &c. together with Routs, Assemblies, Masquerades, and Concerts of a particular or private nature; in the latter of these you will find notorious gamblers of the female sex, who deal in art and deception, as well as some more notorious male cheats, who frequently barter one commodity for another provided discount is allowed.

In this great city are several houses not only converted, but others built, for the assembly of gamblers, into which, however, none under a certain degree are admitted, unless a friend of a subscriber is introduced as a novice in the art, in order to be initiated into those rules of fraud and cunning they square his actions by: his admittance may be effected at the expence of five or ten thousand pounds, and a qualification is given of his adoptnessadeptness [sic] in the science, which will enable him to exhibit with eclat at Newmarket or York races. These pretenders to honor and honesty, have been detected many times in practising the vilest frauds at play, particularly at the game of hazard, which is