r Wightman
appeared for the noble plaintiff; and the keen-witted and exquisitely
polished Mr Thesiger (now Lord Cholmondeley), Mr Alexander, and Mr W.
H. Watson for the defendant. A great many of the nobility were present,
together with several foreigners of distinction.

4. BROOKES' CLUB, IN ST JAMES'S STREET.

This was a house notorious for very high gaming, and was frequented
by the most desperate of gamblers, among the rest Fox, Brummell, and
Alderman Combe. According to Captain Gronow:--

At Brookes's, for nearly half a century, the play was of a more gambling
character than at White's. . . . On one occasion Lord Robert Spencer
contrived to lose the last shilling of his considerable fortune given
him by his brother, the Duke of Marlborough. General Fitzpatrick being
much in the same condition, they agreed to raise a sum of money, in
order that they might keep a Faro bank. The members of the club made no
objection, and ere long they carried out their design. As is generally
the case, the bank was a winner, and Lord Robert bagged, as his share
of the proceeds, L100,000. He retired, strange to say, from the fetid
atmosphere of play, with the money in his pocket, and never again
gambled. The lowest stake at Brookes' was L50; and it was a common event
for a gentleman to lose or win L10,000 in an evening. Sometimes a whole
fortune was lost at a single sitting.(38)

(38) Walpole, passim.

5. WHITE'S CLUB.

White's Club seems to have won the darkest reputation for gambling.
Lord Lyttleton, writing to Dr Doddridge, in 1750, says:--'The Dryads
of Hogley are at present pretty secure, but I tremble to think that the
rattling of a dice-box at White's may one day or other (if my son should
be a member of that noble academy) shake down all our fine oaks. It is
dreadful to see, not only there, but almost in every house in the town,
what devastations are made by that destructive fury, the spirit of
play.' A fact stated by Walpole to Horace Mann shows the character of
the company at this establishment:--'There is a man about town, Sir
William Burdett, a man of very good family, but most infamous character.
In short, to give you his character at once--there is a wager in the
bet-book at White's (a MS. of which I may one day or other give you an
account), that the first baronet that will be hanged is this Sir William
Burdett.' Swift says:--'I have heard that the late Earl of Oxford, in
the time of his ministry, never passed b