Such pleasing gifts were the regular accompaniment and sweetener of the more serious transactions, the graver obligations which formed the mainstay of the connection. On the part of the members there was the annual present of a pair of bucks for the municipal banquet, and one of the oddest passages in this vast epistolary jungle is to be found in a letter of Sir John Duntze, in which he informs his colleague that a member of the Corporation, on bad terms with another member, announced as the ostensible cause of the quarrel, that he had been improperly helped to venison on the occasion of this important festival. Allusions to the subject are so frequent and unctuous, that one is tempted to conclude that in those gay, convivial days the yearly consignment of venison was a more considerable factor in the case than we should now deem possible. Thus, Mr. Mayor observes, with the distinctive air of a man of the world:— We had on Thursday the Grand Dinner, when ninety-four gentlemen dined with me, amongst whom was Sir Rich. Bampfylde and Mr. Ackland, eldest son of Sir Thos. Ackland, who is going to be married to Sir Rich^d’s second daughter, a most amiable lady. This is a very great alliance for Sir Richard Bampfylde’s family, and will be the means of keeping everything quiet in the county. This brings us to the topic of the social status of the Corporation, which was comparatively high. Its critics, indeed, complained that it included attornies, “very improper persons to be elected”; and the members were frequently laughed at for “having Mayors in trade.” In reply to this heavy indictment it was alleged by one of their number that at least twenty-two out of the twenty-four had landed property either in the town or in the parish. This was in 1831. In the reign of William and Mary the “burgesses” are described some as esquires, others as merchants, and one or two as yeomen; and this standard, there is reason to think, was consistently maintained. Tiverton, it may be well to say, was for centuries an important centre of the woollen trade. Instead of one big factory, as now, for the production of lace, there were many modest firms engaged in the manufacture and sale of serges, etc., and consequently the Common Council was, above all things, the valued preserve of families enriched by commerce, some of whom had acquired all the attributes of gentle birth and breeding. Mr. Worth, of Worth, and Mr. Cruwys, of Cruwys Morchard, belonged to two of the oldest families of Devon, and an ancestor of the former had sat in Parliament for Tiverton in days when the choice of members was apparently free and unfettered. With such the Ryders corresponded in the most genial, unaffected, and friendly way, and, in their somewhat infrequent visits to the place, were glad to accept their hospitality. They would, for instance, occasionally stay with Mr. Dickinson, of Knightshayes, an ancestor of the present Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Sir W. H.