VOTERS AND REFRESHMENTS. 37 



an admirable and severe letter in The Times after the 

 election, showing up in no half-tints the conduct of the 

 Duke of Buckingham and his supporters in voting for 

 the two extremes, and concluded by the prophecy : 

 " My Lord Duke, the day of reckoning will surely 

 come." Sure enough, in a very few months the financial 

 crash of his Grace came, and after a twenty-eight days' 

 sale, the whole of the splendid contents of his palatial 

 residence at Stowe came under the auctioneer's hammer, 

 and the autocratic duke politically ceased to exist. 



After returning members to Parliament for over 300 

 years, the ancient Borough of Aylesbury, the first battle- 

 ground of John Wilkes, was merged into the Division 

 of Mid-Bucks, to be represented by that overpowering 

 monied family, the Rothschilds, yet very popularly so, 

 first by Lord Rothschild and now by Baron Ferdinand. 



But before I conclude my sketch of the Parliamentary 

 history of my native borough, I must mention again the 

 election of 1818, when Lord Nugent and »Mr. Rickford 

 defeated the Hon. C. C. Cavendish, so that I may 

 give a curious illustration of the manner in which some 

 elections at this period were conducted. 



From some old account books in my possession, I find 

 Mr. Cavendish and his friends occupied the White Hart. 

 The committee met in March and continued to sit for 

 three months, and they managed to guzzle and expend 

 no less than £2^J 2s. 2d. There was also an executive 

 committee, who professed to assist the other, and their 

 little bill amounted to ;^io8 4^". 6d. ; but the really 

 harrowing part of the business for this losing candidate 

 must have been that of paying the bill for the necessary 



