DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 40 ) Profligate as he was, he never indulged in the two prominent vices of the day —drinking and gambling. Once as a youth Wilkes had lost five hundred guineas at play. His father paid his debts and said to him, ‘Jack, mind you do so no more.’ He pro- mised, and never again did he touch a die or a card. The anniversary of the King’s birthday was cele- brated by the British Ambassador at Paris by a grand banquet, followed by six hours of faro, a game of hazard, a mode of entertainment which Wilkes in a letter declared ‘he detested, as well as any other kind of gaming.’ The majority of the greatest noblemen and most remarkable politicians were in the habit of squandering their fortunes at the gaming-tables. Day and night they sate in their frieze coats, which they had ex- changed for their embroidered garments, turning them inside out for the sake of luck, hiding their lace ruffles with pieces of leather, such as are used by footmen in cleaning their knives, and wearing high-crowned, broad-brimmed straw hats, adorned with flowers and ribbons, to conceal their emotions, and hazarding as much as 10,000/. on a single throw of the dice. On one of these occasions Lord Stavordale, who was not then of age, lost eleven thousand pounds, and recovered them by ‘one great hand.’ He then swore