A coat of chocolate, a vest of snow,
Well brush’d his whiskers, as his boots below;
A short-napp’d beaver, prodigal in brim,
With trousers tighten’d to a well-turn’d limb;
O’er play, o’er dress, extends his wide domain,
And Crockford trembles when he calls a main.”
Crockford’s “Palace of Fortune”—of misfortune to many—was in St James’ Street, upon a site and in a building now partly occupied by the Devonshire Club. The house was designed by and built in 1827 under the direction of Sir Jeffrey Wayatville, or Wyatt, the transformer of Windsor Castle, and its proprietor was John Crockford, who it is reputed died worth some £700,000; one authority indeed states that he made over £1,000,000 in a few years out of his famous club. The place was “palatial”; a splendid vestibule and staircase; a state drawing-room, a state dining-room; and—the play-room. The number of members was between 1000 and 1200, the annual subscription being £25; the number of candidates were out of all proportion to the vacancies. Supper was the great institution, but as a matter of honour it was “no play, no supper”; no payment was asked for, so members who did not desire to play in earnest would, after supper, throw a £10-note upon the play-table and leave it there. The cooking was of the finest, Ude being the chef; the cellar admirable.
Of Ude, the following pleasing little tale is told:—
Colonel Damer going into the club one evening met his highness the chef tearing up and down in a terrible passion.