… one activity to the next there is no time for the kind of social interaction that resulted in self-reflection and self-improvement that epitomised eighteenth-century sociability. In fact reflection is positively scorned by Sir William, who … if it might be any advantage to himself’ and pronounced that gambling did not foster the rational tone of mutual improvement but instead produced ‘lies, oaths, […] the most bitter and opprobrious expressions […] envy, dissimulation, …