mention of the name of Crockford's a procession of the greatest
men of the day passes before my eyes; their name would be legion as to
numbers, but an army of devoted patriots I should call them in every
other sense, for they were English to the backbone, whether gamblers
or saints.

Of course there were some amongst them, as in every large body of men,
who were not so desirable to know as you could wish; but they were
easy to avoid and at all times an interesting study.

There were wise men and self-deluded fools, manly, well-bred men, and
effeminate, conceited coxcombs, who wore stays and did up their back
hair, used paint, and daubed their cheeks with violet powder. These
men, while they had it, planked down their money with the longest
possible odds against them. There was one who was the very opposite
to these in the person of old Squire Osbaldistone. True, he had
squandered more money than any one had ever seen outside the Bank of
England, but he had done it like a gentleman and not like a fool. A
real grand man was the old squire, and I enjoyed many a walk with
him over Newmarket Heath, listening to his amusing anecdotes, his
delightful humour and brilliant wit. His manner was so buoyant that no
one could have believed he had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds,
but he had, without compunction or regret.

The novelist and the painter could artistically describe Squire
Osbaldistone. I can only say he was a "fine old English gentleman, one
of the olden time." It was in a billiard-room at Leamington where I
first met him, and as he was as indifferent a player as you could
meet, he thought himself one of the best that ever handled a cue.

I neither played chicken hazard nor any other game, but enjoyed myself
in seeing others play, and in picking up crumbs of knowledge which I
made good use of in my profession.

The institution was not established for the benefit of science or
literature, except that kind of literature which goes by the name
of bookmaking. Its founder was a veritable dunce, but he was the
cleverest of bookmakers, and made more by it in one night than all the
authors of that day in their lives. One hundred thousand pounds in
one night was not bad evidence of his calculation of chances and his
general knowledge of mankind.

To be a member of this club, wealth was not the only qualification,
because in time you would lose it; you had to be well born or
distinguished in some other way. The fishm