to an arrangement with an old woman at
Bath, in virtue of which he was to receive a fourth share of the
profits. This was probably not the only 'hell'-keeping transaction of
his life, and he had once before quashed an action against a cheat in
consideration of a handsome bonus; and, in fact, there is no saying what
amount of dirty work Nash would not have done for a hundred or so,
especially when the game of the table was shut up to him. The man was
immensely fond of money; he liked to show his gold-laced coat and superb
new waistcoat in the Grove, the Abbey Ground, and Bond Street, and to be
known as Le Grand Nash. But, on the other hand, he did not love money
for itself, and never hoarded it. It is, indeed, something to Nash's
honour, that he died poor. He delighted, in the poverty of his mind, to
display his great thick-set person to the most advantage; he was as vain
as any fop, without the affectation of that character, for he was
always blunt and free-spoken, but, as long as he had enough to satisfy
his vanity, he cared nothing for mere wealth. He had generosity, though
he neglected the precept about the right hand and the left, and showed
some ostentation in his charities. When a poor ruined fellow at his
elbow saw him win at a throw L200, and murmured 'How happy that would
make me!' Nash tossed the money to him, and said, 'Go and be happy
then.' Probably the witless beau did not see the delicate satire implied
in his speech. It was only the triumph of a gamester. On other occasions
he collected subscriptions for poor curates, and so forth, in the same
spirit, and did his best towards founding an hospital, which has since
proved of great value to those afflicted with rheumatic gout. In the
same spirit, though himself a gamester, he often attempted to win young
and inexperienced boys, who came to toss away their money at the rooms,
from seeking their own ruin; and, on the whole, there was some goodness
of heart in this gold-laced bear.

That he was a bear there are anecdotes enough to show, and whether true
or not, they sufficiently prove what the reputation of the man must have
been. Thus, when a lady, afflicted with a curvature of the spine, told
him that 'She had come _straight_ from London that day,' Nash replied
with utter heartlessness, 'Then, ma'am, you've been damnably warpt on
the road.' The lady had her revenge, however, for meeting the beau one
day in the Grove, as she toddled along with her dog, and bei