Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/73

Rh In the room which he pointed out to me, I saw no Bagatelle board, so took the liberty to make enquiry after it. Some low fellows had it in the kitchen, to which I repaired; but this room being immediately under the publican's eye, he never permits them to play for more than a pint of porter, and makes no little parade of the regulation,—though I was convinced he himself would be the first to break through it. He afterwards removed the board into the parlour, where some one or other continued to play from noon to midnight, as I afterwards found.

Going towards Holborn I looked into three places where the same game was playing; and took the liberty of looking in upon them again after business was over, and found they had all been as actively employed, pretty nigh, as that one in Wood Street.

By actual reckoning I have found these boards to average the amount of liquor lost and won at them, at something less than three shillings per hour, when they are going; and it is no unusual thing to find them engaged three or four deep; disputes often arising for the next turn or go. Now as nine of these boards are kept in Farringdon Ward alone, I calculate there are one hundred and eight in the city, and not less than four