Strange Wagers.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 167, 21 January 1873, Page 7

Strange Wagers.

In September, 1788, (says the Annual BeUer,) "A young Irish gentleman, for a very uonsiderable wager, set out on Monday, the 22ud inst., to walk to Constantinople and back again in one year" ; and in June of the following year, Mr Whalley arrived about this time in Dublin from his journey to the Holy Land, considerably within the limited time

0 f twelve months. The wager laid on the performance of that expedition was twenty thousand pounds. Buck Whalley was a Dublin macaroni, whose appearance in a swallowtailed blue coat, gay waistcoat, buckskin breeches, and top-boots, created no little astonishment in Jerusalem. He was taken foi 3 madman ; thanks to which belief, and a stout shilelagh, he went on bis way unmolested, and was enabled to return home to claim his winnings, and be henceforth dubbed Jerusalem Whalley. Men have done odd things enough for the sake of a few pounds. Pepys records that Lords Arran and Castle haven ran down and killed a stout buck in gt. James's Park. In 1766 a man crossed the Thames from Somerset stairs in a butcher's tray. In 1826, Mr Henry Hunt drove his father's blacking van, four-in-hand, over the frost-bound Serpentine. A merchant once paved a hundred square yards with common stones in less than nine hours. A Berkshire gentleman felled 171 trees of one sort and another in six hours and twenty-five minutes. A naval officer rode a blind horse round Sheerness racecourse without handling the reins, steering his steed safely by fastening the reins to his feet. Mr Poole, of Hod:'<rove, rode an old mare down the steepest rtirt of the Devil's Dyke, near Brighton, a descent of three hundred yards, almost sheer |in some places, without deviating more than INiree yards to the right or left of his starting oint. General Chorrettie, after one perusal fthe Morning Post, repeated the entire consnts of the paper from the date to the pubslier's name, without a single blunder or mission. One man ran a mile, walked a jnile, wheeled a barrow a mile, trundled a wop a mile, and hopped upon one leg for the bane distance, in fifty-eight minutes. Another an two coach-wheels together for a mile, p a six-inch cart-wheel a mile, ran backwards half a mile, rode two miles, and jumped bver 20 five-barred gates without touching, in 36| minutes. A medical student ran four limes round the raiiings of St. Clement's Danes, while the church clock struck 12, and chimed the Lass o' Gowrie, the distance being 680 yards, and the striking and chiming oc-tup-ing exactly three minutes, leaving the p 3r 20 seconds to the good. During the kge of the Crimean stronghold, three men if.' j Ninety-third Regiment bet they would ;eta rose from Sebastopol, and won their ra!*er, after a sharp bout with a party of inssian sharpshooters. Some years ago a joudon waterman wagered that he and his iog would jump from the centre arch of iVestminster Bridge, and land at Lambeth ogether. He leaped from the bridge, and he clog followed suit, but taking it into his lead that his master was in clanger of drownag, the faithful fellow dragged him " willylilly" to shore, and by his well-intentioned (hinder, lost his master the wager. When he false news came to England that Sebasopol had fallen, three days after the battle if Alma, a party of Sussex men drank to the lealth of the victors at a certain inn, but one ncredulous man would not believe the glad idings, and offered to give the landlord a overeign upon condition of receiving a sliding a day as long as the Russians held their wn. The offer was accepted, and for many iSaturday night did "the Russian" look for lis seven shillings, the unlucky believer in he prowess of the allies eventually paying ome eighteen pounds for his single sovereign, mother lost wager was that of the impudent ml who bad siuh faith in the good lasses [Worcester, that he bet he would kiss fifty jris in going down the High street of the ',-hful city. Unfortunately for his speculam he caught a Tartar the very first attempt, id got three weeks' hard labour for his