Who Dares Wins an Icy bet in London . . .

January 1826 was very cold in London with a lot of ice on the river Thames where on the 17th January at low tide, it was almost frozen bank to bank at Deptford!

The picture shows how on the same day, for a bet of 100 guineas, Henry Hunt  drove his father's cart, drawn by four blood horses across the ice over the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park at its broadest part. The image shows his safe return fo the North bank from which he had set out. The ice must have been really thick to take the weight.