Men betted, but their wagers are not recorded until the eighteenth century, and one of the earliest of these is told in _Malcolm’s Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the eighteenth century_. “Mrs Crackenthorpe, the Female Tatler of 1709, tells us ‘that four worthy Senators lately threw their hats into a river, laid a crown each whose hat should first swim to the mill, and ran hallooing after them; and he that won the prize, was in a greater rapture than if he had carried the most dangerous point in Parliament.’” “There was an established Cock pit in Prescot Street, Goodman’s Fields, 1712: there the Gentlemen of the East entertained themselves, while the Nobles and others of the West were entertained by the edifying exhibition of the agility of their running footmen. His Grace of Grafton declared _his_ man was unrivalled in speed; and the Lord Cholmondeley betted him that _his_ excelled even the unrivalled; accordingly, the ground was prepared for a two mile heat, in Hyde Park; the race was run, _and one of the parties was victor_, but _which_, my informant does not say.” “I have frequently observed, in the course of my researches, the strange methods and customs peculiar to gaming, horse racing, dice and wagers; the latter are generally governed by whim and extreme folly. We have already noticed Noblemen running their Coaches and Footmen. In 1729, a Poulterer of Leadenhall Market betted £50, he would walk 202 times round the area of Upper Moorfields in 27 hours, and, accordingly, proceeded at the rate of five miles an hour on the _amusing pursuit_, to the infinite improvement of his business, and great edification of hundreds of spectators. Wagers are now a favourite custom with too many of the Londoners; they very frequently, however, originate over the bottle, or the porter pot.” “To characterise the follies of the day, it will be necessary to add to the account of the _walking_ man, another, of a _hopping man_, who engaged to hop 500 yards, in 50 hops, in St James’s Park, which he performed in 46. This important event occurred in December 1731.” In No. 145 of the _Spectator_ (16th Aug. 1711) is a letter about the prevalence of laying wagers. “Among other things which your own experience must suggest to you, it will be very obliging if you please to take notice of wagerers. * * * * *