Page:Remarkable history of the miser of Berkshire- John Elwes, Esq..pdf/11

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from paying always, and not always being paid that he conceived disgust at the inclination.

The acquaintances which he had formed at Westminster School, and at Geneva, together with his own large fortune, all conspired to introduce him into whatever society he liked best. He was admitted a member of the club at Arthur's, and various other clubs of that periodAnd as some proof of his notoriety at that time as a man of deep play; Mr Elwes, the late Lord Robert Bertie, and some others, are noticed in a scene in the Adventures of a Guinea, for the frequency of their midnight orgies. Few men, even from his own acknowledgment, had played deeper than himself; and with success more various.he once played two days and a night without intermission: and the room being a small one, the party were nearly up to the knees in cards. He lost ſome thouſands at that ſitting: The late Duke of Northumberland, who would never quit a table where any hope of winning remained, was of the party.

Aſter ſitting up a whole night at play, for thouſands, with the moſt faſhionable and profligate men of the time, amidſt ſplendid rooms, gilt ſophas, wax lights, and waiters attendant on his call, he would walk out about four in the morning, not towards home, but into Smithfield, to meet his cattle, which were coming to market, from Thaydon Hall, a farm of his in Eſſex: There would this ſame man, forgetful of the ſcenes he had juſt left, ſtand in the cold or rain, bartering with a carcaſe-