Now! Then! Sir Walter James, 2nd Baronet (21) is elected MP for Kingston upon Hull, to the joy of a young Tory author

25 July 1837: Sir Walter James, 2nd Baronet (21) is elected MP for Kingston upon Hull, to the joy of a young Tory author

Eliza Keary. 1882. Memoir of Annie Keary by Her Sister. London: Macmillan and Co. Get it:

Excerpt

One election stands out among the rest as having particularly excited the town, especially the ladies of it, not on account of any especial question of politics involved in it, but because of unusual interest that attached to the persons of the candidates on that occasion. One was a Wilberforce, the other was a young baronet – touchingly young, the ladies pronounced him to be, and about him spinster imagination unceasingly busied itself. He was known to be a scion of the aristocracy too, and that was a fact particularly commendable in Hull eyes; whilst there was something plebeian in the very names of the rival candidates, Wood and Hutt. The general enthusiasm was catching, and “Don’t you think,” Annie said, one day, “that there must be something very remarkable in the new member?” The time just then happened to be favourable for inventions; there had been a theme missing in Annie’s story-talk for some time, ever since the collapse of the nun romance, in fact, and she readily seized upon an idea for a new tale. The member became the hero of many volumes of her unpublished novels.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations

Comment

Date given by the York Herald, which makes the hustings sound lively.

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Original

One election stands out among the rest as having particularly excited the town, especially the ladies of it, not on account of any especial question of politics involved in it, but because of unusual interest that attached to the persons of the candidates on that occasion. One was a Wilberforce, the other was a young baronet – touchingly young, the ladies pronounced him to be, and about him spinster imagination unceasingly busied itself. He was known to be a scion of the aristocracy too, and that was a fact particularly commendable in Hull eyes; whilst there was something plebeian in the very names of the rival candidates, Clay [actually Wood – Clay stood in 1841] and Hutt. The general enthusiasm was catching, and “Don’t you think,” Annie said, one day, “that there must be something very remarkable in the new member?” The time just then happened to be favourable for inventions; there had been a theme missing in Annie’s story-talk for some time, ever since the collapse of the nun romance, in fact, and she readily seized upon an idea for a new tale. The member became the hero of many volumes of her unpublished novels.

197 words.