I believe he was man who's father was a crook (from Portsmouth) and was so disillusioned by life in the hovel he was surrounded by that he closed his eyes and turned to fiction
Very little money being matched at all on this market, so it only takes a handful of bets to change the prices significantly. I doubt if more than 3 or 4 grand has been matched on this, across all the bookies. These are just novelty bets for bookmakers, though betting markets generally are quite an effective tool for measuring the likelihood of outcomes. Just before resolution the price of the winner often crashes rapidly, like Mauricio's price for the Spurs job did. But the market on Saints nextb manager isn't really speaking loudly yet imo.
Interesting seeing as he died 28 years before Pompey were formed. I do believe he was an infant when his family had to leave Portsmouth for Bloomsbury and thus probably never uttered a single word the whole while he was in Portsmouth.
Its a shame Ronald isn't a player manager We really could do we a quality centre back who score lots of goals!
[video=youtube;FopyRHHlt3M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FopyRHHlt3M&feature=player_embedded[/video]
There is a fascinating (being serious now) exhibition in the City museum, with extracts from the papers of the day, detailing offences and subsequent punishment of the "disorderly poor" of those times. Some of the serious crimes take some beating in that the punishment was probably worse than the deed. In 1784, a notorious case concerning a marine, John Quin, who had helped Mary Bayley murder her husband at their house in Portsmouth. They were sentenced to be dragged on a hurdle to the place of execution where 'she was to be burnt at the stake and he was to be hanged and his body delivered to the surgeon for dissection and anatomization'. The crime of husband killing was regarded as a most serious offence, and technically described as petty treason, and therefore subject to the more extreme punishment. Or in 1782, an even more ferocious sentence was meted out to David Tyrie at a Special Commission in Winchester in August 1782. Tyrie was found guilty of supplying the enemy with information about British warships throughout the kingdom. He was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging, drawing and quartering, with the four quarters being 'disposed of as His Majesty shall think fit'. He was drawn to the place of execution in Portsmouth on a hurdle and the sentence carried out 'before a VAST crowd'. We used to draw them in even in those days!
