A REMARKABLE and amusing stunt was reported by the Worcester Journal this week 250 years ago.

The edition of 1754 recorded: "Last Saturday evening, a voracious young fellow, who served an apprenticeship to a shoemaker at Leigh, but now lives at Powick near this city, undertook, for a trifling wager, to eat a raw shoulder of mutton of 9 pounds weight without bread or drink, but to his great regret, he could devour no more than five pounds of the choicest of the flesh so that he was obliged to forfeit a shilling.

"This glutton, before he agreed to eat the mutton, had taken a very hearty supper. 'Tis said he was neither sick nor ashamed at his performance, but was greatly mortified the next morning to find the remainder of the raw mutton, which he had relished for his breakfast, had gone.

"We suppose it was given to some neighbour's dogs which, at first, were not much inclined to eat it, perhaps assuming that some unmannerly Cur of a different breed, had carried off all the choicest pieces."