But I must not linger over this portion of my story.  It would occupy many pages, and time and space are limited; I therefore take my leave of one of the pleasantest chapters in my reminiscences.

All, alas! have passed away—­all I knew and loved, all who made that time so happy; and reluctantly as I say it, it must be said:  “Farewell, dear, grand old.  Knebworth, with all thy glories and all the glad faces and merry hearts I met within your walls—­a long, long, farewell!”

CHAPTER XXII.

CROCKFORD’S—­“THE HOOKS AND EYES”—­DOUGLAS JERROLD.

“Crockford’s” has become a mere reminiscence, but worthy, in many respects, of being preserved as part of the history of London.  It was historic in many of its associations as well as its incidents, and men who made history as well as those who wrote it met at Crockford’s.  It was celebrated alike for high play and high company.

As I never had a real passion for gambling, it was to me a place of great enjoyment, for there were some of the celebrated men of the day amongst its invited guests—­wits, poets, novelists, playwrights, painters—­in fact, all who had distinguished themselves in art or literature, law, science, or learning of any kind were always welcomed.

It was as pleasant a lounge as any in London, not excepting Tattersall’s, which has equal claims on my memory.  At Crockford’s I met Captain H——­, a wonderful gamester; he died early, but not too early for his welfare, seeing that all the chances of life are against the gambler.  Padwick, too, I knew; he entertained with refined and lavish hospitality.  He was one of the winners in the game of life who did not die early.  He told good stories and put much interest into them.  He knew Palmer, the Rugeley poisoner—­a sporting man of the first water, who poisoned John Parsons Cook for the sake of his winnings, and his wife and mother, it was said, for the sake of the insurance on their lives.  Padwick knew everybody’s deeds and misdeeds who sought to increase his wealth on the turf or at the gaming-table.  He was a just and honourable man, but without any sympathy for fools.

Others I could recall by the score, men of character and of no character.  Some I knew afterwards professionally, and especially one, who, although convicted of crime, escaped by collusion the sentence justly passed upon him.  Another was a man of position without character, whose evil habits destroyed the talent that would have made him famous.

But I need not dwell on the manifold characters and scenes of Crockford’s.  There has been nothing like it either in its origin or its subsequent history.  There will never be anything like it in an age of refinement and laws, which have been wisely passed for the protection of fools.

The founder of this fashionable gambling place was at one time a small fishmonger in either the Strand or Fleet Street, I forget which, and lived there till he removed to St. James’s Street, where he became a fisher of men, but never in any other than an honourable way.