The English Spy, page 158 by Bernard Blackmantle
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eet, Strand, where he realized a considerable sum by insurances and little goes; from this spot he was transplanted to Norris-street, in the Haymarket, managing partner in a gaming-house, when, after a run of ill luck, an affair occurred that would have occasioned some legal difficulty but for the oath of a pastry-cook's wife, who proved an alibi, in return for which act of kindness he afterwards made her his wife. Obtaining possession of the rooms in Pall-Mall (then the celebrated E. O. tables, and the property of W-, the husband, by a sham warrant), the latter became extremely jealous; and, to make all comfortable, our hero, to use his own phrase, generously bought the mure and coll.--Mrs. W--and her son--both since dead: the latter rose to very high rank in an honourable profession. The old campaigner has now turned pious, and recently erected and endowed a chapel. He used to boast he had more promissory notes of gambling dupes than would be sufficient to cover the whole of Pall-Mall; he may with justice add, that he can command bank notes enough to cover Cavendish-square.
~181~~
And west-end hells, to fortune rose By many a subtle way. Patron of bull-baits, racings, fights, A chief of black-legg'd low delights-- 'Tis the new m------s, F-k; Time was, his heavy vulgar gait, With one of highest regal state Took precedence of rank: But now, a little in disgrace Since J-e usurp'd his m------'s place, A stranger he's at court; Unlike the greatest and the best Who went before, his feather'd nest Is well enrich'd by sport. F-1-y disastrous, honour's child; L-t-he the giddy, gay, and wild, And sportive little Jack; The prince of dandies join the throng, Where Gwydir spanks his fours along, The silvery grays or black. The charming F-te, and Colonel B-,{39} Snugly in close carriage see With crimson coats behind: And Mrs. C--, the Christmas belle,
39 We shall not follow the colonel's example, or we could give some extracts from the letters of a. female corespondent of his that would be both curious a