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right hand side of St . James ' s street , a few yards off . Pk $ a 4 iHy » . < , It was built in 1825 , at the enormous expense of nearly 6 CMXKM . ; white the furnishing of it cost 35 , 0 OO £ . more , making * altogether a sum not much s"hort of 100 , 000 / . It is a very large and very handsome house , externall y ; but no one by seeing it from the outside can hav . e any conception of the splendour which it exhibits within . There is nothing like it , in
the latter respect , in London . No one , I believe , not eYen those accustomed to visit the mansions of the aristocracy , ever entered the saloon for the first time , without being dazzled with the splendour which surrounded him . A friend and myself lately went throughout the whole of ijt ; and for some moments , on entering the saloon , we stood confounded by the scene . It is a large , spacious room , from fifty to sixty feet in length , and from twenty to twenty-five in breadth . On each side are
two mirrors in magnificent frames . The plate alone of each of the four , cost nearly one hundred guineas . From a glance of the eye , I should take their dimensions to be about sixteen feet by eight . The walls and ceiling of the saloon are most richly ornamented by carved work , beautifull j ^ g ttt . The bottoms of the chairs are all stuffed with down , -while the carpenter part of the work is of that unique description which renders it
impossible for me to describe it . The principal table has the appearance of being : cut out of a solid piece of wood : a piece of more richly carved work , jul g ilt except the top or surface , I have never seen . The ebandeliers are magnificent , and when lighted up with sperm-oil , the only thing used , they produce an effect of which it is impossible to convey an idea . On the left hand , as you enter the saloon , is the card-room ; much smaller , bat also splendidly fitted up . On the right hanii , at the opposite or St . James ' s end of the saloon , is the hazard-room , with all the
paraphernalia of gaming . It is not large , being only about twenty feet in lengtk by- fourteen in breadth . There is admission to the hazard-room from the saloon by a large door , which in its massy appearance and the hardness of the wood of which it is made , reminded me of that of a prison ; it is also a piece of superior workmanship , with the ornamented part of it ricnly gilt . Branching off from the hazard-room , is the slipperroom for t ^ iose who gamble . Judging from the number of chairs around
the table , which seemed as if they had been occupied the preyiou . s night , there must have been fourteen persons on that occasion at . the hazardtable ; for none but those who play at hazard are allowed to sup in that particular room . It is , together with the hazard-room , fitted up in a style of magnificence corresponding with the splendour of the oVh ' ef parts oi « the house . The suppers are most sumptuous , and are laid out in a style rarely equalled in the houses of any of our nobility . They are all given gratis by Mr Crookford . "—Vol . i , pp . 160—162 .
Gratis indeed ! We shall presently see the motive of this jnrinctel y generosity . * I was at a loss for sometime to know how Mr Crockford could afford tq riaMhff ^ afc of abou t 7 £ 0 subscribers , which is the irambeY of members , supping at his expense , while they only pay twenty guineas , entrance money eacn , and ten guineas yearly subscription . I had the matter , however , soon explained to me . With regard to those who enter the hazard-room , I saw at once the policy of plying them with the choicest
Untitled Article
74 V 4 The Great Metropolis .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1836, page 704, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2663/page/52/
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