ort of _ONE MILLION STERLING_.

(67) So called from the letters E and O, the turning up of which decided
the bet. They were otherwise called _Roulette_ and _Roly Poly_, from the
balls used in them. They seem to have been introduced in England about
the year 1739. The first was set up at Tunbridge and proved extremely
profitable to the proprietors.

This enormous wealth was then used as an efficient capital in carrying
on various illegal establishments, particularly gaming houses, the
expenses of a first-rate house being L7000 per annum, which were again
employed as the means of increasing these ill-gotten riches.

The system was progressive but steady in its development. Several of
these conspicuous members of the world of fashion, rolling in their
gaudy carriages and associating with men of high rank and influence,
might be found on the registers of the Old Bailey, or had been formerly
occupied in turning, with their own hands, E.O. tables in the public
streets.

The following _Queries_, which are extracted from the _Morning Post_ of
July the 5th, 1797, throw considerable light upon this curious subject,
and show how seriously the matter was regarded when so public a
denunciation was deemed necessary and ventured upon:--

'Is Mr Ogden (now the Newmarket oracle) the same person who,
five-and-twenty years since, was an annual pedestrian to Ascot, covered
with dust, amusing himself with "_PRICKING in the_ belt," "_HUSTLING_ in
the hat," &c., among the lowest class of rustics, at the inferior booths
of the fair?

'Is D-k-y B--n who now has his snug farm, the same person who, some
years since, _DROVE A POST CHAISE_ for T--y, of Bagshot, could
neither read nor write, and was introduced to _THE FAMILY_ only by his
pre-eminence at cribbage?

'Is Mr Twycross (with his phaeton) the same person who some years since
became a bankrupt in Tavistock Street, immediately commenced the Man of
Fashion at Bath, kept running horses, &c., _secundum artem?_

'Is Mr Phillips (who has now his town and country house, in the most
fashionable style) the same who was originally a linen-draper and
bankrupt at Salisbury, and who made his first _family entre_ in the
metropolis, by his superiority at _Billiards_ (with Captain Wallace,
Orrell, &c.) at Cropley's, in Bow Street?

'Was poor carbuncled P--e (so many years the favourite decoy duck
of _THE FAMILY_) the very barber of Oxford, who, in the midst of the
operation upon a gentleman's