Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-02-21
atlisesllaneuns &eadius.
DAYS OF QUEER BETS.
Some Wagers Made BY Idle Gentlemen
of Hundred Years Aoo.

London contains lne FeCOTu VI Soiie
extraordinary wagers. The idle gen.
tlemen of a hundred years ago could
give their prototypes Of today sundry
hints on eccentric betting. Here are
fac c-similes of some of the records
One reads:
Mr.. Methuen bets Colonel STAN
hope ten guineas to one that worthy
baronet-understood between them
does not from necessity part with his
gold ice pals before this day twelve
month. The ice pals being found at
a pawnbroker's will not entitle Colonel
Stanhope to receive his ten guineas.'
This peculiar wager was made in
1913, and another one, recorded the
same year at Whites, may have refer
ence to the same hard up parsonage
1t reads:
Lord Alvanley bets Sir Joseph Cop
ley five guineas that certain barone'
understood between them-is very
much embarrassed in his circumstan-
ces. In three years from the date here
of, If one Of his bills is dishonored or
he is observed to borrow small change
of the chairmen or walters, Sir Joseph
is to be reckoned to lose"
Here is an odd one: Mr.. Butler
bets Sir George Talbot 20 guineas to
one that he is not in the room at
Whites with Napoleon in the course
of the next two years-April "a. 1875"
History shows that Mr.. Butler won
that guinea.
A famous wager made by the Earl
of March, better known by his later IT,
tie of Duke Of Queensberry. was in
regard to a chaise match. Court Taafe
and another man bet Lords March and
Eglinton a thousand guineas that they
could not provide four wheel carrl-
age to carry a man and be drawn by
four horses 10 miles an hour.
The duke (Lord March) was shrewd
and seldom lost a wager. This time
he secured horsebreaker's brake
without the usual high perch, had oil
cans fixed to the wheels and had the
poles and bars made Of thin wood lap
ped with wire to strengthen them. The
springs were Of steel and the harness
of silk and whalebone. The total
weight was about two and a half hun
dred weight. When the course was
run, August 29, 1850, the horses fairly
ran away with their riders and cover
ed the 10 miles in six minutes less
than the hour.
Another ingenious wager made by
the duke was that he could cause let
ter to be conveyed so miles in an hour.
He enclosed the letter in a cricket ball
and then stationed number of crick-
eters at fixed intervals to throw each
other catches with the ball, which by
this method covered many miles over
the required so.
On another occasion on which he
was tempted to make bet Of some
what similar character the duke very
nearly caught q tartar in a certain Mr..
Edgworth The duke declared that by
means of relays of swift horses the re-
suit of a certain race at Newmarket
would be known to him at 9 O'Clock
at night.
oh" said Edgworth, Il expect to
know it at f."
This was too much for the duke and
he made several bets Of $500 each
with Edgworth and his friends. Alas!
however, for the indiscretion-or was
it only the transparent honestly
Mr.. Edgworth. When they met next
day at the Turf Coffee House to reduce
the bet to writing Edgworth, who had
in his mind a system of semaphores,
blurted out that he did not mean to
rely upon horses. The duke instantly
realized that there were some things
undreamed of in his philosophy and
declined to proceed with the bet.
In hn hplten.
only to save himself with characters
tic energy and astuteness. He noticed
one day a journeyman coachbuilder
trundling a wheel and doing so with
great skill and rapidity. He was also
acquainted with a certain waiter al
Betty's fruit shop in st. James's street
who was famed for his running. One
cannot help surmising that this fame
was rather easily earned or else the
coachbuilder must have been very
wonderful fellow, for the duke backed
him to run with the hind wheel of the
ducal carriage faster than the waiter,
who was not even to be encumbered
with a pile Of plates.
So we'll satisfied was he that he
would win his money that he did not
have a trial with this particular wheel
till the day before the match, hen to
much lower than the wheel which the
coach builder usually trundled and so
sadly diminished his pace. Here was
pretty quandary; but the duke was not
to be beaten.
He borrowed a large number of
planks from a friend in the board OF
works and engaged an army of work
men. All night the workmen toiled
by the light Of the moon and in the
morning there was ready pathway OF
planks by means of which the wheel
was brought up to the requisite height.
The Jecky club on appeal allowed
the rather curious proceeding, and the
race was run, with the result that Bet
tvs waiter lost the race and his back
ers their money.
Richard, sixth Lord Barrymore, be-
ing in great financial straits, decided
to get out of them by hook or crook
He therefore spent some time careful
ly covering the floor Of room with
playing cards, or according to another
account with halfpence. Having found
out how many would do it, he invited
a party of friends to dine with him in
that room, and finally succeeded IN
getting a wager of $500 that he could
guess more nearly than any one else
the number of cards-or half pence
that would cover the floor. AS his bio
grapher remarks: 1T is unnecessary
to record the name of the winner"
With this ancestry the seventh Lord
Barrymore naturally had a weakness
for betting too. One wager he made
was at Brighton with the duke of York
to the effect that he could wade fur
ther into the sea than the duke could
Instantly they walked to the shore and
plunged in with all their fine clothes
on. The duke, however, had not paid
enough attention to the fact that he
was not so tall as Lord Barrymore, and
as he did not want to be drowned he
had to pay.
Besides being a great coachman and
patron of the ring, Lord Barrymore
was something of an athlete and crick-
eter. He captained several elevens
that played matches for large sums
and ran a famous race in Kensington
Gardens-60 yards with a turn round
tree-against Captain Parkhurst
the latter being mounted. He also
wanted to race the Bath coach from
Hyde Park corner to Hammersmith
but the odds apparently were not
forthcoming that would make it worth
while.
In this matter of running. however
Lord Barrymore, who was so fond OF
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