England -- Social life and customs; Gambling -- Great Britain
A different kind of wager is recorded in _The World_, of 4th May
1787. “At the Wheel, at Hackington Fen, on Wednesday sen’night, a fen
farmer laid a wager he could eat _two dozen_ of penny mutton pies,
and drink a gallon of ale in half an hour, which he performed _with
ease_, in half the time, and said he had but a _scanty_ supper and
wished for something more; in less than half an hour after, he ate a
threepenny loaf and a pound of cheese, and still swore he was hungry.
The landlord, unwilling to starve his _delicate guest_, set before him
a leg of pork, which his voracious appetite gormandized with great
composure. He thanked the landlord for his civility, and said, ‘I hate
to go to bed with an empty stomach.’”
In the _Annual Register_ we read, September 1788. “A young Irish
gentleman, for a very considerable wager, set out on Monday the 22nd
instant, to walk to Constantinople and back again in one year. It is
said that the young gentleman has £20,000 depending on the performance
of this exploit. 1st June 1789, Mr Whaley arrived about this time in
Dublin from his journey to the Holy Land, considerably within the
limited time of twelve months. The above wager, however whimsical, is
not without a precedent. Some years ago, a baronet of some fortune, in
the north, laid a considerable wager that he would go to Lapland, bring
home two females of that country and two reindeer in a given time. He
performed his journey, and effected his purpose in every respect. The
Lapland women lived with him for about a year, but, having a wish to go
back to their own country, the baronet very generously furnished them
with means and money.”
In Trinity Term, 1790, was argued in the Court of King’s Bench,
whether all wagers, by the 14th George III., were not void, as gaming
contracts, and being contrary to the policy of the law? Lord Kenyon
and Justices Ashurst and Grose were of opinion, that the law had not
declared all wagers illegal, however desirable such a law might be.
Wagers that led to a breach of the peace, to immorality, the injury of
a third person, or that had a libellous tendency, were void; but some
wagers, between indifferent people, were, certainly legal, both by the
common law, and by statute. Mr Justice Buller differed from the rest of
the Court.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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