<p>Camelford, a small market town situated on the River Camel in the north-east of the county, was ‘a place of little trade’ and the houses were generally ‘rather poor’. Its immediate vicinity consisted of ‘good agricultural land’, but the country beyond was largely ‘bleak and dreary’ and included the ‘prolific’ Freburget lead mine, three miles away.<fn> S. Drew, <em>Hist. Cornw</em>. (1824), ii. 402-3; <em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>. (1830), 139; <em>Parochial Hist. Cornw</em>. i.

<p>The industrializing county of Derbyshire, with its mixture of market towns and manufacturing concerns, was supposed to have over 3,000 (or, according to one source, 3,600) freeholders, but this figure was merely notional as there had been no contests since 1768. Politically, it was dominated by the Whig magnate the 6th duke of Devonshire of Chatsworth, the lord lieutenant, whose family had held one seat continuously from 1734.

<p>Malton, a non-corporate town governed by a bailiff, who was appointed at the court leet of the lord of the manor, remained under the total control of the Whig 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam throughout this period. He never neglected to attend to the needs of its inhabitants, most of whom were his tenants, and after a challenge to his authority in 1807 there was no contest until 1874. The early days of January 1820 brought very severe weather, and the navigation of the Derwent, on which many of Malton’s residents relied for employment, became impossible, leaving many families destitute.

<p>Newtown, a pocket borough abolished by the 1832 Reform Act, lay at the head of a fine natural harbour on the north-west coast of the Isle of Wight, but by the mid-sixteenth century had fallen into decay as a port and settlement. A salt manufactory and oyster fishery operated nearby, but an 1830 directory noted that the place itself ‘scarcely deserves the name of a village’.<fn> <em>VCH Hants</em>, v. 265; <em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>.

<p>Derby, ‘a medium town, between a manufacturing and a genteel one’, continued to prosper during this period, notably because of its iron, silk and porcelain production. As well as the Paving Act of 1825, improvements included such recent buildings as the gaol, although Colonel William Dyott in 1826 commented that it had ‘become a filthy, dirty place, particularly the new part’.<fn> R. Phillips, <em>Personal Tour</em> (1828), ii. 110-12, 155-6; <em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>. (1829), 125; <em>PP</em> (1835), xxv. 445-6, 450-1; S.

<p>The return of the Members for Peterborough had been under the complete control of the Whig 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam of nearby Milton, the principal property owner and custos rotulorum of the liberty, since 1786. The unusual jurisdiction enjoyed by the dean and chapter of the city’s cathedral over the soke of Peterborough and their power to nominate the returning officer (normally their steward) meant that their interest had always to be considered, but for many years they had been content to follow Fitzwilliam’s line.

<p>Northamptonshire was predominantly rural and agrarian. Its chief industry was the manufacture of boots and shoes, centred around Northampton, Kettering, Daventry, Towcester, Higham Ferrers and Wellingborough, although there were also some small-scale silk weaving, lace making and wool spinning enterprises.<fn><em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>. (1830), 608; <em>Northants. Dir</em>. (1847), 18; <em>Hist. Gazetteer and Dir. of Northants</em>.

<p>Aberdeen, situated on the Dee at its entrance to the North Sea, was a major fishing port and shipbuilding and industrial centre, where the large-scale manufacture of cotton, linen, sailcloth, woollens and hosiery was carried on. There were also extensive iron works and manufactories of rope, leather, paper, soap and candles. The royal burgh, or ‘New Town’, contained Marischall College (1593), while the ‘Old Town’, a separate burgh of barony, was the location of King’s College (1494). The population (burgh and parish) rose from 44,796 in 1821 to 58,019 in 1831.

<p>Queenborough was a decayed market town of 270 acres on the Isle of Sheppey, off the north Kent coast. Its already much reduced defensive role was further undermined in this period by the rise of neighbouring Sheerness, where the royal dockyard was greatly expanded. The population was almost entirely dependent on local fisheries, but trade was not prosperous and about a quarter of the 200 houses in the town were unoccupied.<fn> <em>PP</em> (1831-2), xxxvii. 313; (1835), xxiv. 163; (1844), xxxi. 296-7; G.

<p>Cullen was a small fishing port on the southern shore of the Moray Firth. In the early 1820s most of the decayed old town, which lay inland, was demolished to make way for improvements to Cullen House, the residence of the lunatic 5th earl of Seafield, who owned most of the local property. A more salubrious burgh was built on the coast, east of the ancient settlement of Fishertown. Its population (burgh and parish) was 1,452 in 1821 and 1,593 in 1831, and its council numbered 19.<fn><em>Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland</em> (1895), ii.