Betting Book Curiosities.

Southland Times, Issue 22345, 9 June 1934, Page 6

Betting Book Curiosities.

Tire councillors of Cottingham, in Yorkshire, have been annoyed to find themselves the subjects of the Englishman’s incurable propensity to lay a wager. Odds have been laid on their elections, and they want to have it stopped, but they will find that difficult. There are perhaps few gamesters today of the standard of the bucks and dandies of the eighteenth century, but there are plenty of people who will take a bet on any wayward chance. Elections were, indeed, a favourite ground for bets at White’s and Brooks’s Clubs. One finds in White’s Betting Book sums from five to a hundred guineas laid on elections—for example, in 1753, 50gns to 10 “yt Sir George Saville is not chose in ye next Parliament for Yorkshire”—upon the fall of Ministries, or upon which of two Church dignitaries wins the race for a bishopric. Perhaps the most mysterious of the many strange entries is: Mr Talbot bets a certain gentleman a certain sum that a certain event does not take place within a certain time. The very first bet in this book, as it stands, is for a hundred guineas, among others on the same matter, that Sarah Duchess of Marlborough outlives the Dowager Duchess of Cleveland. It is dated 1743, and although the Duchess of Marlborough had been very ill two years before, a number of members evidently had considerable faith in her staying powers. During that illness, as they had probably heard, the Duchess had lain for hours without speaking, until the physician said, “She must be blistered, or she’ll die,” when she woke up and said, “I won’t be blistered, and I won’t die.” She did, in fact, live until October. 1744.