y White's chocolate-house
(the common rendezvous of infamous sharpers and noble cullies) without
bestowing a curse upon that famous academy as the bane of half the
English nobility.'

It was from the beginning a gaming club, 'pure and simple.' The play was
mostly at Hazard and Faro. No member was to hold a Faro bank. Whist was
comparatively harmless. Professional gamblers, who lived by dice and
cards, provided they were free from the imputation of cheating, procured
admission to White's. It was a great supper-house, and there was play
before and after supper, carried on to a late hour and to heavy amounts.

At White's they betted on every possible thing, as shown by the
betting-book of the establishment--on births, deaths, and marriages; the
length of a life; the duration of a ministry; a placeman's prospect of a
coronet; the last scandal at Ranelagh or Madame Cornely's; or the shock
of an earthquake! 'A man dropped down at the door of White's; he was
carried into the house. Was he dead or not? The odds were immediately
given and taken for and against. It was proposed to bleed him. Those
who had taken the odds that the man was dead protested that the use of a
lancet would affect the fairness of the bet.' I have met with a similar
anecdote elsewhere. A waiter in a tavern in Westminster, being engaged
in attendance on some young men of distinction, suddenly fell down in a
fit. Bets were immediately proposed by some of the most thoughtless
on his recovery, and accepted by others. The more humane part of the
company were for sending immediately for medical assistance, but this
was overruled; since, by the tenor of the bets, he was to be 'left to
himself,' and he died accordingly!

According to Walpole--'A person coming into the club on the morning of
the earthquake, in 1750, and hearing bets laid whether the shock was
caused by an earthquake or the blowing up of powder-mills, went away in
horror, protesting they were such an impious set that he believed if the
last trump were to sound they would bet puppet-show against Judgment.'

And again: 'One of the youths at White's, in 1744, has committed a
murder, and intends to repeat it. He betted L1500 that a man could live
twelve hours under water; hired a desperate fellow, sunk him in a ship,
by way of experiment, and both ship and man have not appeared since.
Another man and ship are to be tried for their lives instead of Mr
Blake, the assassin.'

He also tells us of a ver