The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1865-10-12

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ed and drank there. George III. and his
Queen, Prince Frederick and his Court.
scarce a character one can mention in the
early last century, but was seen in that
famous Pump-room where Beau Nash
presided, and his picture hang between
the busts of Newton and Pope:
"This picture, placed these busts between,
Given satire all its strength;
Wisdom and Wit are little seen,
But Folly ut full length"
should like to have seen the Folly.
TWAS asplendid, embroidered, beruffied,
nuff-boxed, red-heeled, impertinent Fol
ly, and knew how to make itself respect
ed. should like to have seen that noble
old madcap Peterborough in his boots
(he actually had the audacity to walk
about Bath in boots y with his blue rib
bon and stars, and a cabbage under each
arm, and a chicken in his hand, which
he had been cheapening for his dinner.
Chesterfield came there many time,
and gambled for hundreds, and grinned
through his govt. Mary Wortley was
there, young and beautiful and Mary
Wortley, old hideous, and snuffy. Miss
Chudleigh came there, slipping away
from one husband and on the lookout
for another. Walpole passed many
clay there; sickly, supercillous, absurdly
dandified, and affected; with a brilliant
wit, delightful sensibility and, for his
friends, a most tender, generous, and
faithful heart. And if you and had
been alive then, and strolling down Mil
som Street-hush! we would have taken
our hatsoff as an awful, long, lean, gaunt
figure, swathed in fiannels, passed by in
its chair, and livid face looked out from
the windoW-great fierce eyes staring
from under bushy, powdered wig, !.
and we whisper to one another, "There
is Mr.. Pitt - As we walk away, the
abbey bells are set a-ringing; and we
meet our testy friend Toby Smollett, on
the arm of James Qhin the actor, who
tells us that the bells ring for Mr.. Bull
lock, an emminent cow-keeperf from Tot
tenham, who has just arrived to drink
the waters and Toby shakes his cane at
the door Of Colonel Ringworm-the Gre
ole gentlemen's lodgings next his own
where the ColonePs two negroes are
practicing an the French-horn.
When we try to recall social England,
we must fancy it playing at cards for
many hours every day. The custom is
Well-nigh gone out among us now, but
fifty years ago was general, fifty years
before that almost universal, in the coun-
try. Gaming has become so much the
fashion," writes Seymour, the author of
the Court G0nsester, "that he who in COM
pany should be ignorant of the games in
vogue would be reckoned low-bred, and
hardly fit for conversation" There were
cards every where. 1t was considered
were not fit articles for drawing-rooms,"
old ladies used to say. People were
jealous, as it were, and angry with them.
You will find in Hervey that George III.
was always furious at the sight of books,
and his queen, who loved reading, had
to practice it in secret in her closet. But
cards were the resource of all the world.
Every night, for hours, kings and queens
of England sat down and handled their
majesties Of spades and diamonds. In
European Courts, l believe the practice
still remains-not for gambling, but for
pastime. OurancestOrs generally adopt
ed it. "Book! prithee, don't talk to me
about books" said old Sarah Marlbo-
rough. "The only books l know are
men and cards." "Dear old Sir Roger
de Coverly sent all his tenants string
of hogs buildings and a pack of cards at
Christmas" says the Spectator, wishing
to depict kind landlord. One of the
good old lady writer's in whose letters l
have been dipping, cries out, "Sure,
cards has kept us women from a great
deal of scaddal J" Wise old Johnson re-
GREETED that he had not learned to play.
at is very useful in life," he says; lit
generates kindness and consolidates So
Getty" David Hume never went to bed
without his whist. We have Walpole,
in one of his letters, in a transport of
gratitude for the cards. 81 shall build
an altar to PAM" says he, in his pleas
ant, danditied way, "for the escape of
my charming Duchess Of Grafton" The
duchess had been playing cards at Rome
when she ought to have been at a cardi-
NAILS conceft, where the floor fell in, and
all the monsignors, We're precipitated
into the cellar. Even the N onconformist
clergy looked not unkindly ON the prac-
tice. IT donot think, Essays one ofthem,
"that honest Martin Luther committed
sin by playing at backgammon for an
hour or two after dinner, in order, by
unbending his mind, to promote diges-
tion." AS for the High Church parsons,
they all played, bishops and all. On
Twelfth-day the Court used to play in
state. "This being Twelfth-day, his
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