In eighteenth century England, winning elections often involved MP’s wooing local voters with cash, flattery and open houses. How did the Earl of Cork complain about the latter?
Answer: He complained that during an election “our doors are open to every dirty fellow in the county that is worth forty shillings a year; all my best floors are spoiled by the hobnails of farmers stamping about them; every room is a pig-stye, and the Chinese paper in the drawing room stinks so abominably of punch and tobacco that it would strike you down to come into it.”
Source: Daily Life in 18th Century England by Kristin Olsen
More at: History
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