WILLIAM CUMING, M.D. 37 



and subordinate officer in the battle, Sir Hugh Palliser, Vice- 

 Admiral of the Blue, was generally blamed for bringing these 

 charges against Keppel. London illuminated after the declara- 

 tion of the verdict ; and a mob, taking advantage of the absence 

 of a guard appointed to protect Palliser, smashed his windows, 

 broke into his house, and wrecked his furniture. On February 

 24th, 1779, Cuming was writing to Gough at the moment when 

 Dorchester gave milder, but not the less peremptory, expression 

 to public opinion : " This," says the doctor, " is our adjourned 

 Fair day. I just now see from my Window the Figure of the 

 unhappy Sir Hugh conducted on the Hangman's Cart, properly 

 escorted, to a Gibbet erected in our INIarket place, where he is to 

 be suspended till the Evening, when he will be consigned to the 

 Flames, and to-night we must all illuminate our Windows or 

 suifer the resentment of their High Mightiness the Mob, whose 

 vassals we are." 



I shall touch next upon borough politics, as illustrated by 

 some documents among the miscellaneous collections formed by 

 Cuming. In 1750 both seats at Dorchester were vacated by the 

 death of John Browne, of Forston, and the retirement of 

 Nathaniel Gundy, appointed puisne justice of the Common 

 Pleas. The merits of three candidates who then took the field 

 are set forth in as many stanzas composed by " Sappho," a 

 pseudonym I cannot unveil. The poetess snubs " Martial 

 Demar" {sic), who, no doubt, was George Darner, a lieutenant 

 in the Foot Guards : 



What has he done ? Alas ! no Tongue can tell. 

 What has he spoke ? Why, not a Syllable. 



On the other band, she heartily commends John Pitt, of 

 Enconibe, to the electors' choice : 



Take then the Son, Ye Friends of freedom, take, 

 And hail him Victor, for the Mother's sake. 



His mother was Mrs. Lora Pitt, second wife of George Pitt, of 

 Stratfieldsage, the lady who gave Dorchester its London-road 



