The candidate is treating all around, within the inn, as seen in the bar-parlour, his followers are feeding gluttonously; in the balcony above are two fair nymphs, whose favour he is conciliating by purchasing trinkets from a Jew pedlar. A farmer voter of some influence, probably a squire of the Tony Lumpkin order, who has ridden into Guzzledown, is making the most of his opportunities: the landlords of the rival inns are ostensibly pressing him to accept invitations to dinner at the respective head-quarters; the host of the Royal Oak is pouring a shower of silver into the receptive palm held out by the wary elector, while the other hand receives the broad golden retainer of “The Crown.” The landlady has a lapful of money, while one of George’s grenadiers (like those seen in “The March to Finchley”) is slyly watching the reckoning of the plunder, probably with an eye to spoliation on his own account. The Crown, which is also the Excise Office, is the scene of an animated contest, rival bludgeon-men are in fierce conflict at the doorway, furniture and stones are being thrown about, and a man from the window is discharging a gun into the thick of the fray below--an allusion to a murderous episode which really occurred. The sign of the Crown, suspended to a huge beam, is in process of removal; a man above, on the wrong side of the support, is sawing it through, while confederates below are dragging it down by force: this is also figurative--the man above, who is assisting to demolish the Crown, will come down simultaneously, while those beneath it will be crushed by its fall. At a third house is the sign of the Porto Bello, at the side door of which is seen a barber demonstrating with pieces of tobacco-pipe the manner in which Porto Bello was itself taken with six ships only; his companion, a cobbler, has given up work, having received sufficient money from the elections to afford to forego toil for the present. [Illustration: THE ELECTION AT OXFORD.--CANVASSING FOR VOTES. BY W. HOGARTH. 1754.] [Illustration: THE OXFORDSHIRE ELECTION--THE POLLING BOOTH. BY W. HOGARTH. 1754. [_Page 145._]