Lord Slim. O yes.—His Grace sate him down at my House, and I have just lent him my Chariot into the City.—How do you like the last edition of his Treatise with the Appendix,[41] Sir Calculation? I mean that sign'd with his Name.[42]
Sir Cal. O Gad, my Lord, there never was so excellent a Book printed.—I'm quite in Raptures with it—I will eat with it—sleep with it—go to Court with it—go to Parliament with it—go to Church with it.—I pronounce it the Gospel of Whist-Players; and the Laws of the Game ought to be wrote in golden Letters, and hung up in Coffee-houses, as much as the Ten Commandments in Parish Churches.
Sir John Medium. Ha! Ha! Ha! You speak of the Book with the Zeal of a primitive Father.
Sir Cal. Not half enough, Sir John—the Calculations[43] are so exact! * * * his Observations[44] are quite masterly! his Rules[45] so comprehensive! his Cautions[46] so judicious! There are such Variety of Cases[47] in his Treatise, and the Principles are so new, I want Words to express the Author, and can look on him in no other Light than as a second Newton."
The way in which Sir Calculation introduces Hoyle's Calculations of Chances is very amusing.
"Sir John. 'Twas by some such laudable Practices, I suppose, that you suffered in your last Affair with Lurchum.
Sir Cal. O Gad, No, Sir John—Never any thing was fairer, nor was ever any thing so critical.—We were nine all. The adverse Party had 3, and we had 4 Tricks. All the Trumps were out. I had Queen and two small Clubs, with the Lead. Let me see—It was about 222 and 3 Halves to—'gad. I forgot how many—that my Partner had the Ace and King—let me recollect—ay—that he had one only was about 31 to 26.—That he had not both of them 17 to 2,—and that he had not one, or both, or neither, some 25 to 32.—So I, according to the Judgment of the Game, led a Club, my Partner takes it with the King. Then it was exactly 481 for us to 222 against them. He returns the same Suit; I win it with my Queen, and return it again; but the Devil take that Lurchum, by passing his Ace twice, he took the Trick, and having 2 more Clubs and a 13th Card, I gad, all was over.—But they both allow'd I play'd admirably well for all that."
The following passage from the same pamphlet mentions the Crown—probably the Crown Coffee-house—and it has been inferred from this that Hoyle himself might have been one of Lord Folkestone's party.
"Young Jobber [A pupil of the Professor's]. Dear, Mr. Professor, I can never repay you.—You have given me such an Insight by this Visit, I am quite another Thing—I find I knew nothing of the Game before; tho' I can assure you, I have been reckoned a First-rate Player in the City a good while—nay, for that Matter, I make no bad figure at the Crown—and don't despair, by your Assistance, but to make one at White's soon."