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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

 CHAPTER XI. page 33

So much for the character of Fox, as I have gathered from Mr
Jesse;[123] and I continue the extremely interesting subject by
quoting from that delightful book, `The Queens of
Society.'[124] `With a father who had made an enormous fortune,
with little principle, out of a public office--for Lord Holland
owed the bulk of his wealth to his appointment of paymaster to
the forces,--and who spoiled him, in his boyhood, Charles James
Fox had begun life _AS A FOP OF THE FIRST WATER_, and squandered
L50,000 in debt before he became of age. Afterwards he
indulged recklessly and extravagantly in every course of
licentiousness which the profligate society of the day opened to
him. At Brookes' and the Thatched House Fox ate and drank to
excess, threw thousands upon the Faro table, mingled with
blacklegs, and made himself notorious for his shameless vices.
Newmarket supplied another excitement. His back room was so
incessantly filled with Jew money-lenders that he called it his
Jerusalem Chamber. It was impossible that such a life should not
destroy every principle of honour; and there is nothing
improbable in the story that he appropriated to himself money
which belonged to his dear friend Mrs Crewe, as before related.

[123] George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, ii.

[124] By Grace and Philip Wharton.

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