“She canvass’d all, both great and small, And thundered at each door, sir; She rummaged every shop and stall-- The Duchess had been before her.” The Tories were furious at the success of the duchess, who, attended by several beauties of the Whig aristocracy, and, among others, by the fascinating Lady Carlisle, carried all before her; another rival canvasser, in addition to the “Diana of Hatfield,” was set up in the person of the Hon. Mrs. Hobart, Lady Buckinghamshire, of “Pic-nic” fame, who, though “fat and fair,” was under “forty,” and remarkably volatile, but, being of portly figure, this dashing lady, a connection of Pitt’s, was by the opposition nicknamed “Madame Blubber,” and the caricaturists, who represent her as canvassing for Hood and Wray, with a weighty purse by way of inducement, make the electors on whom she has tried her persuasive powers unanimous in asserting “I’m engaged to the Duchess.” Mrs. Hobart was, however, looked upon as a rival of the gracious Georgiana, and many satirical shafts, both by verse and picture, were launched at her full-blown charms. Balloons, as novelties at that time, were exciting a share of attention, and Madame Blubber as the “Ærostatic Dilly,” was, as a balloon “launched at Richmond Park,” shown in mid-air, convoying to the hustings outlying and dependent voters. “Tho’ in every street All the voters you meet The Duchess knows best how to court them, Yet for outlying votes In my petticoats, I’ve found out a way to transport them! “Eight trips in this way, For Hood and for Wray, I’ll make poll sixteen in one day. Dear Wray, don’t despair, My supplies by the air Shall recover our losses on Monday!” Walpole wrote under date, April 13th:-- “Mr. Fox has all the popularity in Westminster; and, indeed, is so amiable and winning that, could he have stood in person all over England, I question whether he would not have carried the parliament. The beldams hate him; but most of the pretty women in England are indefatigable in making interest for him; the Duchess of Devonshire in particular. I am ashamed to say how coarsely she has been received by some worse than tars. But nothing has shocked me so much as what I heard this morning. At Dover, they roasted a poor _fox_ alive by the most diabolical allegory--a savage meanness that an Iroquois could not have committed!” “During her canvass the Duchess made no scruple of visiting the humblest of the electors, dazzling and enchanting them by the fascination of her manner, the power of her beauty and the influence of her high rank, and sometimes carrying off to the hustings the meanest mechanic in her own carriage.”