Sounds like a pretty good reason for Hampden to lie or cheat, doesn't it Tom?
Sounds like a pretty good reason for Wallace to lie, too, which is why I'm not taking this wager at anything more than face value.
However, you REers seem to be taking this ridiculous wager as some sort of "proof" that the earth is a globe.
Unfortunately, it's not proof for the two following reasons:
1.) Both men walked away from the wager claiming that they had won.
2.) The wager was for a years worth of pay. So of course anyone on the losing side would cheat or lie about the results when he had a year's worth of pay to lose.
So the wager between Hampden and Wallace doesn't really tell us anything about the shape of the earth. Sorry.