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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz

 CHAPTER XII. page 27

THE EARL OF MARCH.

This extraordinary and still famous personage, better known as
the Duke of Queensberry, was the `observed of all observers'
almost from his boyhood to extreme old age. His passions were
for women and the turf; and the sensual devotedness with which he
pursued the one, and the eccentricity which he displayed in the
enjoyment of both, added to the observation which he
attracted from his position as a man of high rank and princely
fortune, rendered him an object of unceasing curiosity. He was
deeply versed in the mysteries of the turf, and in all practical
and theoretical knowledge connected with the race-course was
acknowledged to be the most accomplished adept of his own time.
He seems also to have been a skilful gamester and player of
billiards. Writing to George Selwyn from Paris in 1763, he
says:--`I won the first day about L2000, of which I brought
off about L1500. All things are exaggerated, I am supposed to
have won at least twice as much.' In 1765 he is said to have won
two thousand louis of a German at billiards. Writing to Selwyn,
Gilly Williams says of him: `I did not know he was more an adept
at that game than you are at any other, but I think you are both
said to be losers on the whole, at least Betty says that her
letters mention you as pillaged.'

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