By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 171 



gentlemen put up, and both parties have treated. But last Saturday 

 se'night they came to such a pitch as to force open a house and take 

 possession. There were guns, pistols, and swords on both sides, 

 but nobody was murdered, which it is feared will be the case before 

 it is over. Eight men are already in Salisbury jail." 



In that year (1754) nearly £6000 was spent by one side, of which 

 £4059 was in direct payment of hard cash to voters at thirty guineas 

 a man, and £1100 in beer and other dainties called " refreshment/' 

 at the Horse and Jockey, the Oak, the Cross Keys, and the rest of 

 them. In 1784 the two principal neighbouring potentates were the 

 Earl of Clarendon and Lord Bolingbroke. There was the usual 

 struggle for the two seats, but after that was settled those two 

 gentlemen came to a quiet understanding to be content with sending 

 in future one apiece to Parliament, and so harmony did prevail till 

 1807. In that year a Mr. Kibble white, an attorney, of Gray's Inn, 

 in London, came forward boldly to fight both the noblemen — two 

 Philistine Goliaths— at once. He also, like David, armed himself 

 with a scrip and a few pebbles. David's were only smooth ones, 

 picked out of the brook, but Mr. Kibblewhite's were heavy ones, 

 picked out of the bank, for the price of votes upon that memorable 

 occasion rose up to £45 a man. One of the honourable members 

 returned by this " free and independent " constituency was a Mr. 

 Walsh, a London stockbroker, who, it was afterwards ascertained, 

 had paid £4000 for his success. However he did not occupy his 

 costly seat very long, for, being entrusted by the Solicitor-General 

 with £21,000 to be invested in stock, the Hon. Member for 

 Wootton invested it in uses of his own, and then bolted, under a 

 false name, for America, but was caught at Plymouth, and of course 

 expelled from the House of Commons. The other member, who 

 had succeeded in getting in by the help of Mr. Kibblewhite's scrip 

 and pebbles, contrived to secure the seat for the future by buying 

 up no less than a hundred and eight of the houses, all of which he 

 afterwards sold to Mr. Pitt, of Cirencester, who carried on the war 

 against the two lords. (Gent. Mag., 1811, Pt. II., p. 582.) 



The right of voting belonged there, as at some other places, to 

 all persons who were classed under the rather forbidding name of 



