The sun-dial bears the date 1755 (when the picture was completed), and marks three o’clock, the quality dinner-hour. The bigwigs of the Court party are assembled at an adjacent mansion, at which a plentiful banquet is about to be served: a French _chef_, his long clubbed tail bound with an orange favour, a female cook, noblemen’s servants, and other retainers, all wearing the colours of the Old Interest, are carrying the silver-covered dishes in procession. The ministerial adherents are assembled on the first floor; a large handsome window--all the panes of which have been broken by the stones of the patriots, affords a good view of the guests; from the side window they are catching the prospect of the Blue demonstration, surveying with malicious delight the perilous situation of the alarmed chaired member, whose triumph seems, for the time being, the reverse of enviable. It is said the figure of the chief personage is intended for that of the Duke of Newcastle; the Duke of Marlborough was also actively engaged on the Tory side: while the back of another, wearing a broad ribbon, is possibly meant for Lord Winchilsea. Among the artist’s fugitive sketches, as published at his widow’s, Leicester Fields, in 1781, are the two caricatures--engraved by Bartolozzi, from the Earl of Exeter’s collection of Hogarth’s originals--representing Bubb Dodington (very like “Punch”), and the back view of Lord Winchilsea; both these studies might have been made for the plate of “Chairing the Members.” These figures are also included in a caricature entitled “The Recruiting Sergeant” 1757 (the design of which was ascribed to the Hon. George Townshend), while that of Lord Winchilsea, who was at the head of the admiralty, is reproduced with scarcely any alteration, excepting the position of the paddle shown over his shoulder, in the “Triumph of Neptune.” [Illustration: GEORGE BUBB DODINGTON (LORD MELCOMBE-REGIS) AND THE EARL OF WINCHILSEA. BY HOGARTH. 1753.]