takes his nap all the fervice: and he lately beftowed the beft living in his gift, which he had before promifed to his chaplain, on one whom he had never feen, but had read his name in the titlepage to a fermon against the Jews. He turned off his butler, who had lived with him many years, (and whofe only crime was a fwarthy complexion) be. caufe the dog looked like a Jew. He feeds hogs in his park and the courtyard, and has guinea pigs in his parlour. Every Saturday he has an hunt, because it is the Jewish Sabbath; and in the evening he is fure to get drunk with the vicar in defence of religion. As he is in the commiffion, he ordered a poor Jew pedlar, who came to hawk goods at his houfe, to Bridewell; and he was once going to fend a little parish boy to the fame place, for prefuming to play in his worship's hearing on that unchriftian-like inftrument the Jewsharp. The fair fex here are no lefs ambitious of displaying their affe&tion for the fame caufe; and they manifeft their fenti ments by the colour and fashion of their drefs. Their zeal more particularly fhews itself in a variety of polies for rings, buckles, kn ts, and garters. I obferved the other night at the affembly, that the ladies feemed to vie with each other in hanging out the enfigns of the faith in orthodox ribbands, bearing the infcription of NO JEWS, CHRISTI ANITY FOR EVER. They likewife wore little croffes at their breads; their pompons were formed into crucifixes, their knots difpofed in the fame angles, and fo many parts of their habits moulded into that shape, that the whole affembly looked like the court on St. Andrew's day. It was remarkable that the vicar's lady, who is a thoroughpaced High-Churchwoman, was more religious in the decorations of her dress than any of the company; and, indeed, fhe was fo ftuck over from head to foot with croffes, that a wag juftly compared her to an old Popish monument in a Gothic cathedral. I thall conclude my letter with the relation of an adventure that happened to myself at my first coming into this town. I intended to put up at the Catherine Wheel, as I had often used the house before, and knew the landlord tọ be a good civil kind of fellow. I accordingly turned my horfe into the yard; when to my great furprize the landlord, as foon as he faw me, gave me an hearty curfe, and told me I might go about my business, for, indeed, he would not entertain any fuch rafcals. Upon this he faid fomething to two or three strapping country fellows, who immediately came towards me; and if I had not rode away directly, I fhould have met with a very rough falutation from their horfewhips. I could not imagine what offence I had committed, that could give occafion for fuch ill ufage, till I heard the mafter of the inn hollowing after me- That's the fcoundrel that came here fome time ago with Tom T'other'fide;' who, I have fince learnt, is an agent for the other party. I am, dear coufin, yours, &c. N° XIV. THURSDAY, MAY 2, 1754 TUM IN LECTO QUOQUE VIDERES T STRIDERE SECRETA DIVISOS AURE SUSURROS. HOR. IMPARTED TO EACH LAUGHTER-LOVING FAIR, SIR, THE WHIZZING WHISPER GLIDES FROM CHAIR TO CHAIR: TO MR. TOWN. S the ladies are naturally become A the immediate objects of your care, will you permit a complaint to be in ferted in your paper, which is founded upon a matter of fact? They will pardon me, if by laying before you a particular inftance I was lately witnefs to of their improper behaviour, I endea your vour to expofe a reigning evil, which fubjects them to many fhameful impu tations. I received last week a dinner-card from a friend, with an intimation that I should meet fome very agreeable ladies. At my arrival, I found that the company confifted chiefly of females, who indeed did me the honour to rise, but quite difconcerted me in paying my refpects, by their whispering each other, and appearing to stifle a laugh. When I was feated, the ladies grouped themfelves up in a corner, and entered into a private cabal, feemingly to difcourfe upon points of great fecrecy and importance, but of equal merriment and diverfion. The fame conduct of keeping clofe to their ranks was observed at table, where the ladies feated themfelves together. Their converfation was here alfo confined wholly to themfelves, and feemed like the mysteries of the Bona Dea, in which men were forbidden to have any fhare. It was a continued laugh and whifper from the beginning to the end of dinner. A whole fentence was scarce ever spoken aloud. Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; fuch as odious, borrible, deteftable, fhocking, HUMBUG. This laft new-coined expreffion, which is only to be found in the nonfenfical vocabulary, founds abfurd and difagreeable, whenever it is pronounced; but from the mouth of a lady it is fhocking, deteftable, hor rible, and odious." the objects of ridicule or contempt: and If the misconduct, which I have de- Modern writers of comedy often introduce a pert witling into their pieces, who is very fevere upon the reft of the company; but all his waggery is spoken afide. Thefe gigglers and whisperers feem to be acting the fame part in company, that this arch rogue does in the play. Every word or motion produces My friend feemed to be in an uneafy a train of whifpers; the dropping of a fituation at his own table: but I was fnuff box, or fpilling the tea, is fure to far more miferable. I was mute, and be accompanied with a titter; and upon feldom dared to lift up my eyes from the entrance of any one with fomething my plate, or turn my head to call for particular in his perfon or manner, I fmall beer, left by fome aukward gef- have feen a whole room in a buzz like a ture I might draw upon me a whifper or bee hive. a laugh. Sancho, when he was forbid to eat a delicious banquet fet before him, could fcarce appear more melancholy. The rueful length of my face might poffibly encrease the mirth of my tormenters: at lealt their joy feemed to rife in exact proportion with my mifery. At length, however, the time of my delivery approached. Dinner ended, the ladies made their exit in pairs, and went off hand in hand whispering, like the two kings of Brentford. Modeft men, Mr. Town, are deeply wounded, when they imagine themfelves This practice of whispering, if it is any where allowable, may perhaps be indulged the fair-fex at church, where the converfation can only be carried on by the fecret fymbols of a curtfey, an ogle, or a nod. A whifper in this place is very often of great ufe, as it ferves to convey the moft fecret intelligence, which a lady would be ready to burft with, if he could not find vent for it by this kind of auricular confeffion, A piece of fcandal transpires in this manher from one pew to another, then prefently whizzes along the chancel, from whence H whence it crawls up to the galleries, till at laft the whole church hums with it. It were alfo to be wifhed, that the ladies would be pleafed to confine themfelves to whispering, in their tète-à-tête conferences at the opera or the playhoufe; which would be a proper deference to the reft of the audience. In France, we are told, it is common for the parterre to join with the performers in any favourite air; but we feem to have carried this custom tili further, as the company in our boxes, without concerning themselves in the leaft with the play, are even louder than the players. The wit and humour of a Vanburgh or a Congreve is frequently interrupted by a brilliant dialogue between two perfons of fashion; and a love-fcene in the fidebox has often been more attended to, than that on the itage. As to their loud bursts of laughter at the theatre, they may very well be excufed, when they are excited by any lively ftrokes in a comedy: but I have feen our ladies titter at the most diftrefsful fcenes in Romeo and Juliet, grin over the anguifh of a Monimia or Belvidera, and fairly laugh King Lear off the ftage. Thus the whole behaviour of thefe ladies is in direct contradiction to good manners. They laugh when they should cry, are loud when they thould be filent, and are filent when their converfation is defirable. If a man in a felect company was thus to laugh or whifper me out of countenance, I fhould be apt to conftrue it as an affront, and demand an explanation. As to the ladies, I would defire them to reflect how much they would fuffer, if their own weapons were turned against them, and the gentlemen fhould attack them with the fame arts of laughing and whispering. But, however free they may be from our refentment, they are ftill open to our ill-natured fufpicions. They do not confider, what A ftrange conftru&tions may be put on thefe laughs and whifpers. It were, indeed, of little confequence, if we only imagined, that they were taking the reputations of their acquaintance to pieces, or abusing the company round; but when they indulge themfelves in this behaviour, fome perhaps may be led to conclude, that they are difcourfing upon topics, which they are afhamed to speak of in a lefs private manner. Some excufe may perhaps be framed for this ill-timed merriment in the fairsex. Venus, the goddefs of beauty, is frequently called the laughter-loving dame; and by laughing, our modern ladies may poffibly imagine, that they render themselves like Venus. I have indeed remarked, that the ladies commonly adjust their laugh to their perfons, and are merry in proportion as it fets off their particular charms. One lady is never further moved than to a fmile or a fimper, becaufe nothing elfe fhews her dimples to fo much advantage; another, who has a very fine set of teeth, runs into the broad grin; while a third, who is admired for a well-turned neck and graceful cheit, calls up all her beauties to view, by breaking into violent and repeated peals of laughter. I would not be understood to impofe gravity or too great a referve on the fairfex. Let them laugh at a feather; but let them declare openly, that it is a feather which occafions their mirth. I must confefs, that laughter becomes the young, the gay, and the handfome: but a whifper is unbecoming at all ages and in both fexes; nor ought it ever to be practifed, except in the round gal. lery at St. Paul's; or in the famous whispering place in Gloucefter cathedral, where two whisperers hear each other at the distance of five and twenty yards. I am, Sir, Your most humble fervant, N° XV. THURSDAY, MAY 9, 1754. TU DIC, MECUM QUO PIGNORE CERTES. NAME YOUR BETT. Friend of mine, who belongs to the Stamp-Office, acquaints me, that the revenue arifing from the duty VIRG. on cards and dice continues to increase every year, and that it now brings in near fix times more than it did at firft. This will not appear very wonderful, when we confider, that gaming is now become rather the bufinefs than amufement of our perfons of quality; and that they are more concerned about the tranfactions of the two clubs at White's, than the proceedings of both houfes of parliament. Thus it happens, that eftates are now almoft as frequently made over by whift and hazard, as by deeds and fettlements; and the chariots of many of our nobility may be faid (like Count Baffet's in the play) to roll upon the four aces.' This love of gaming has taken fuch entire poffeffion of their ideas, that it infects their common converfation. The management of a difpute was formerly attempted by reafon and argument; but the new way of adjufting all difference in opinion is by the fword or a wager: fo that the only genteel method of diffenting is to rifk a thousand pounds, or take your chance of being run through the body. The ftrange cuftom of deciding every thing by a wager is fo univerial, that if (in imitation of Swift) any body was to publish a fpecimen of Polite Converfation, instead of old fayings and trite repartees, he would in all probability fill his dialogues with little more than bet after bet, and now or then a calculation of the odds. White's, the prefent grand scene of these transactions, was formerly diftinguiflied by gallantry and intrig de. During the publication of the TATLER, Sir Richard Steele thought proper to date all his love-news from that quarter: but it would now be as abfurd to pretend to gather any fuch intelligence from White's, as to fend to Batlon's for a lawyer, or to the Rolls Coffee-houfe for a man midwife. But the most extraordinary part of this fashionable practice is, what in the gaming dialect is called PITTING one man against another; that is, in plain English, wagering which of the two will live longeft. In this manner, people of the moft oppofite characters make up the fubject of a bet. A player perhaps is pitted against a duke, an alderman against a bishop, or a pimp with a privycounfellor. There is fcarce one remarkable perfon, upon whofe life there are not many thousand pounds depending; or one perfon of quality, whofe death will not leave several of these kind of mortgages upon his estate. The various changes in the health of one, who is the fubject of many bets, occafion very ferious reflections in those who have ventured large fums on his life and death. Those who would be gainers by his deceafe, upon every flight indifpofition, watch all the ftages of his illness, and are as impatient for his death, as the undertaker who expects to have the care of his funeral; while the other fides are very folicitous about his recovery, fend every hour to know how he does, and take as much care of him, as a clergyman's wife does of her husband, who has no other fortune than his living. I remember a man with the conftitution of a porter, up upon whofe life very great odds were laid; but when the perfon he was pitted against was expected to die every week, this man fhot himself through the head, and the knowing ones were taken in. Though most of our follies are im. ported from France, this has had it's rife and progrefs entirely in England. In the left illness of Lewis the Fourteenth, Lord Star laid a wager on his death; and we may guess what the French thought of it, from the manner in which Voltaire mentions it in his Siécle de Louis XIV. Le Roi fut attaqué vers le milieu du mois d'Août. Le Comte de Stair, amb ffadeur d'Angleterre, PARIA, felon le génie de fa nation, que le Roi ne pafferoit pas le mois de Septembre.-The King, fays he, The gentlemen, who now frequent this place, profefs a kind of univerfal fcepticium; and as they look upon every thing as dubious, put the iffue upon a wager. There is nothing, however. trivial or ridiculous, which is not capable of producing a bet. Many pounds have been loft upon the colour of a coach hoffe, an article in the news, or the change of the weather. The birth of a child has brought great advantages to perfons not in the leaft related to the family it was born in, and the break-that the King would not live beyond ing off a match has affected many in their fortunes, befides the parties immediately concerned. was taken ill about the middle of Auguft; when Lord Stair, the ambaffador from England, BETTED, according to the genius of his nation, are at prefent very deep in cards and dice; and while my lord is gaming abroad, her ladyfhip has her rout at home. I am inclined to fufpect, that our women of fashion will alto learn to divert themfelves with this polite practice of laying wagers. A birth-day fuit, the age of a beauty, who invented a particular fashion, or who were fuppofed to be together at the laft mafquerade, would frequently give occafion for bets. This would alto afford them a 1 new method for the ready propagation of scandal; as the truth of several stories, which are continually flying about the town, would naturally be brought to the fame teft. Should they proceed further to take the lives of their acquaintance against each other, they would doubtlets bet with the fame fearlefs fpirit, as they are known to do at brag the husband of one would perhaps be pitted against the gallant of another, or a woman of the town against a maid of honour. And perhaps if this practice fhould once become fashionable among the ladies, we may foon fee the time, when an allowance for bet-money will be ftipulated in the marriage-articles. As the vices and follies of perfons of distinction are very apt to spread, I am alfo much afraid, left this branch of gaming fhould defcend to the common people. Indeed, it feems already to have got among them. We have frequent accounts in the daily papers of tradesmen riding, walking, eating and drinking, for a wager. The contested election in the city has occafioned feveral extraordinary bets: I know a but cher in Leadenhall Market, who laid an ox to a fhin of beef, on the fuccefs of Sir John Barnard against the field; and have been told of a publican in Thames Street, who ventured an hogfhead of entire butt, on the candidate who ferves him with beer. We may obferve, that the fpirit of gaming difplays itself with as much variety among the lowest, as the highest order of people. It is the fame thing whether the dice rattle in an orange barrow, or at the hazard table. A couple of chairmen in a night-cellar are as eager at put or all-fours, as a party at St. James's at a rubber of whift; and the E O table is but an higher fort of Merry-go-round, where you may get fix halfpence for one, fix pence for one, If the and fix two-pences for one. practice of Pitting thould be alfo propagated among the vulgar, it will be common for prize-fighters to take their lives against each other; and two pickpockets may lay which of them fhall first go to the gallows. To give the reader a full idea of a perfon of fashion, wholly employed in this manner, I fhall conclude my paper with the character of Montano. Montano was born heir to a nobleman, remarkable for deep play, from whom he very early imbibed the principles of gaming. When he first went to school, he foon became the most expert of any of his play fellows: he was fure to win all their marbles at taw, and would often trip them of their whole week's allowance at chuck. He was afterwards at the head of every match at football or cricket; and when he was captain, he took in all the big boys by making a lottery, but went away without draw. ing the prizes. He is still talked of at the school, for a famous dispute he had with another of his own caft about their fuperiority in learning; which they decided, by toffing up heads or tails who was the beft fcholar. Being too great. a genius for our univerfities at home, he was fent abroad on his travels, but never got further than Paris; where having loft a confiderable bet of four to one concerning the taking a town in Flanders, he was obliged to come back with a few guineas he borrowed to bring him over. Here he foon became univerfally known by frequenting every gambling-table, and attending every horfe-race in the kingdom. He first reduced betting into an art, and made White's the grand market for wagers. He is at length fuch an adept in this art, that whatever turn things take, he can never lofe. This he has effected, by what he has taught the world to call bedging a bet. There is fcarce a contefted election in the kingdom, which will not end to his advantage; and he has lately fent over commiffions to Paris to take up bets on the recall of the parliament. He was the first that ftruck out the above-mentioned practice of Pitting; in which he is fo thoroughly verfed, that the death of every perfon of quality may be faid to bring him a legacy; and he has fo contrived the bets on his own life, that, live or die, the odds are in his favour. NS |