Betting on Rain Drops.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 April 1910, Page 4

Betting on Rain Drops.

— In spite of the many restrictions in.po:-vd on the betting evil at the beginning of the nineteenth century gambling , flourished up to Queen Victoria's reign, and. became much .-,",!•.' general' after Crockford's was , i.ib!.slied. \Yo reat! in the Ww York "Ijght C'oine. Light Co" (Mac-millau'-'^r "About 18:!8 gaining,-lu.iis:--s wtu , kent (-pen all day, the dice we.'e iw idle, day or night. All the. week, all tho year round, persons were, to be found in Muse |.hie: s, losing their money, and up to 18-1-1 there were no less than tweho gambling-houses in ?t. James , and St. George's."_ Hut the bloods of the- eighteenili century did not restrict their gambling propensities ,t'> the card-taole. , r"i'. any other specilic form ol -!;.-inee. They hc-t on anything and everything. ' A well known spendthrift is said to have- made a pr.ictice cf backing one raindrop to r II down a window quicker than another. Thousands of pounds \v--r.' f(,st and wen any week ol these •rambling years on the most eece i-U-ie wji'L-i's. Kor example:--"l/M-d Oxford b;-'t aivother noj>lemau a. large sum that a, drove ol would bea-t an equal number of turl.-evs in a race from Norwich \n h. n-iCiii. The event \mn ed the j,,,:-„,„; () f |,h l-jrilsliip's expixit .- ;io, s for t':e get-ss* kept on tae road with a steady pace, but the turkeys, ii", eveiv evening .'.pproaeh.vl, hew I-', )■!■ st in the trees adjoining ttie read, from which the drivers found if. very difficult to dislodge them, [t, ,- ; -ii«(qner,'-'.' of this. th.-. arrived at their dtst.inai'.iion two days bcl'e.ro the turkeys." iM-on tin- clergy were bitten by f}\(\ mania. "A young divine, m Hie vicinity of Kdimburgh. declared himself ready to undertake for a wasier of a hundred ginnes;* to read c-ix""ba|/ers from the Hibki every iioiir for six weeks." Tho betting, it, is said, was ten to one. against ],;. lt The notorious Duke of Queen<"!,ur.v ("Old O.") bet n thousand guineas that he would find a ,„.,„ u-1.0 would eat more nt a meal tl.aii flny Sir John Lade could find. The b'-it. wns acwitivi. but the time came "Old Q." was not ■.ibl- to In- present at the , He wreit- to bis agent, asking Him ]ww tho innloli wns de-eided. Tho divainf replv ho received \ros:"Mv 10-rd, 1 bnve irnt time to shta particulars, but merely to acriunini yfMir irrace tbfir vonr man beat bis antagonist by n pig nn-rl apple-pyo."