Shaftesbury

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A borough of notorious venality and intractable politics, the hilltop town of Shaftesbury, on Dorset’s northern border with Wiltshire, was described by Thomas Hardy, who believed that it retained its old ‘natural picturesqueness and singularity’, as ‘one of the queerest and quaintest spots in England’.J. Cannon, ‘Study in Corruption: Shaftesbury Politics’, Procs. Dorset Natural Hist. and Arch. Soc. lxxxiv (1962), 154-7; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 291; J. Hutchins, Dorset, iii (1868), 2-3; T. Hardy, Jude the Obscure (1895), pt. iv, ch.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

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In 1754 the representation of Newcastle was ‘compromised’: Sir Walter Blackett, a Tory, and Matthew Ridley, a Whig, both popular and highly respected local men, were returned unopposed, and continued to be so in 1761 and 1768. In teh House they closely co-operated on matters concerning Newcastle.

Buckingham

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Buckingham in this period was very much the poor relation of Aylesbury. Defoe noted that the latter was ‘the principal market town . . . though Buckingham, a much inferior place, is called the county town’. However, elections for the county were held at Aylesbury, and Buckingham was forever trying to poach the assizes from its rival. The franchise rested in the corporation of 13, with the Temple family occupying a powerful position by virtue of their ownership of the manor, which it leased to the corporation, and their benefactions to the town.

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