Lyme Regis
Economic and social profile:
Shaftesbury
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.
Poole
Economic and social profile:
Christchurch
The right of election at Christchurch had never been determined, but it was usually exercised by the corporation, consisting of the mayor, who acted as returning officer, and 24 freemen. Occasionally this exclusive right was challenged by the inhabitants at large. The strongest interest belonged to the lord of the manor, at the beginning of this period the 2nd Earl of Clarendon (Henry Hyde†), who traditionally had the right to nominate one and often both Members.Ibid.