The Games They Played Vingt-un – similar to blackjack, where players attempt to obtain a hand totalling close to but no more than twenty-one. So I expect there was some significant money lost and won at our Almack’s, too, on occasion.Īlmacks’ was a gambling house that rented out rooms for private events and the assembly. However, I will say our assembly room Almack’s was not as staid as Georgette Heyer and most Regency romances made out: it was not just a “marriage mart” (I think that was more the Victorian view of the place), but rather a club where the wheelers and dealers of Parliament wheeled their deals (and dealt their wheels?), and where you would meet everyone of importance on a Wednesday night. (Yes, I know, hopelessly confusing!) So the place Fox lost masses of money was the gentlemen’s club. Brooks’s was called Almack’s, in the late 18th century. However, more likely the reports of Fox gambling at Almack’s were referring to the gentlemen’s club Brooks’s, not the Almack’s found in many of a Regency romance. Reportedly, Fox and his brother lost even at supposedly staid places like Almack’s, but we must be careful in thinking Almack’s where young ladies and gentlemen were under the watchful eyes of the Patronesses, who were known to present unsuspecting guests who had been presented a voucher a thumbs up or a thumbs down. After his father’s death, he was twice declared bankrupt between 17.”
His father paid out more than £120,000 for his son’s gambling habit, but his debts continued to amass. He drank too much and was an inveterate gambler, winning and losing huge amounts of money, betting on horse races and at the gaming tables. He was a member of White’s and Brooks’ and of the Dilettanti Society. Author Rachel Knowles on her Regency History website tells us: “Fox had a reputation for dissolute behaviour. He was a great friend of the Prince Regent, later George IV, and of Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire. At balls, would there be a person who would play the bank, as there was at the various clubs or hells? Who might we discover as reputable citizens, but deeply in debt?Ĭharles James Fox, for example, was a Whip MP and leader of the Opposition to William Pitt, the Younger’s Tory Party.
Many books dealing with the Regency Era mention card playing going in designated rooms at balls, but what type of cards were the gentlemen (and a few ladies) playing? Would they be gambling and playing games for money like 21 (apparently one of the most popular games of the day, even among families, what we would nowadays call “Blackjack”) or would they stick to games such as Whist, which can also be played for stakes, but could be played for an evening’s entertainment.
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