RACING ADVENTURERS. 265 



of Crockford there might perhaps be a thousand 

 persons each betting or gambhng their occasional 

 thousand or two in the course of the season, but 

 at the present time, as has been already said, there 

 will not be fewer in the United Kingdom than half 

 a million persons, each betting or gambling to 

 the tune of from half-a-sovereign to five pounds 

 per diem. These figures do not include, at either 

 period, the score of big speculators who know 

 no bounds to their ventures, and are only given 

 by way of illustration ; nor do they include the 

 greatest gamble of all — that which takes place 

 on the Stock Exchanges of the kingdom, where, 

 speaking in figurative language, tens of thousands 

 of pounds are passed every hour of the day 

 from account to account all the year round, 



Crockford soon learned the art, and began 

 the business of gambling. The times favoured 

 him. Gambling in his time — that is, gambling 

 by means of cards, dice, and more elaborate 

 machinery — was more of an open practice than 

 it is now. A number of small, or, as they were 

 called, "silver" hells were in existence in those 

 days, where persons could risk shillings or half- 

 crowns, and to one or other of these the young 

 fishmonger was a constant visitor after he had 

 closed his shop. He became in time a pains- 

 taking speculator, and soon began to make 

 money in steady fashion whilst others were 

 losing it. As a contemporary remarked, " he 

 was lucky from the first ; whatever he tried 

 turned up trumps." Along with a partner 

 picked up in a gambling-house — he was a clever 

 person, who seemed to be always fortunate in his 

 dealings — Crockford made his debut on the turf 



