Animal Gambling – British Tradition

An excerpt from the book 40 Humourous British Traditions

The local fish pond was the scene of more gambling.People baked their own bread using various recipes and then
played “feed the fish”. People threw pieces of bread into the water and the first piece of bread eaten would win its baker
the prize. In 1892, after ten years of overzealous competition the fish in the pond were so large that they could barely swim
and so there was a five-year hiatus before the contest recommenced.

Another contest was ‘Attract the Mouse,” which was played in the house of Martha Grable. She had a large
mousehole in her skirting board. Gamblers placed their pieces of cheese around the hole and then crouched down
behind the sofa to wait. The Cheese Judge ensured that each piece was genuine cheese and hadn’t been doctored by a
mouse attractant. The judge also ensured that each piece of cheese was exactly three feet from the hole. The winner was
the person whose piece of cheese was first eaten by the mouse. A mouse sniffing at a piece of cheese didn’t count.