The cause came
on in the Court of King's Bench before Lord Denman. The
plaintiff's witnesses were Lord Wharncliffe, Lord Robert
Grosvenor, the Earl of Clare, and Sir Charles Dalbiac, who had
known and played with him from between 20 to 30 years, as a very
skilful but honourable Whist player. The evidence of Mr
Lawrence, the eminent surgeon, proved that Lord de Ros had long
suffered under a stiffness of the joints of the fingers that made
holding a pack of cards difficult, and the performance of the
imputed trick of legerdemain impossible. For the defence
appeared the keeper of the house and his son; two or three
gamblers who had lived by their winnings; one acknowledged to
have won L35,000 in 15 years. Mr Baring Wall, one of the
witnesses, swore that he had never witnessed anything improper in
the play of Lord de Ros, though he had played with and against
him many years; another witness, the Hon. Colonel Anson, had
observed nothing suspicious; but the testimony of others went to
prove that the aces and kings had been marked inside their edges;
and one averred that he had seen Lord de Ros perform sauter la
coupe a hundred times. The whole case wore much the look of a
combination among a little coterie who lived by gambling to drive
from the field a player whose skill had diminished their income;
nevertheless, the incidents sworn to by some of them wore a
suspicious significance, and a verdict was given against Lord de
Ros, which he only survived a short time.
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