to the Bill were surrounded in their
carriages as they drove through the streets by suddenly collected
crowds, who hooted and hissed them, and would have gone much further
than hooting and hissing in their way of expressing condemnation but
for the energetic intervention of the newly created police force. In
some of the provincial towns, and here and there throughout the
country, the most serious riots broke out. In Derby there were
disturbances which lasted for several days, and consisted of attacks on
unpopular persons and of fierce fights with the police. Nottingham was
the centre of rioting even more serious. Nottingham Castle, the seat
of the Duke of Newcastle, was attacked by a furious mob and actually
burned to the ground. In the immediate neighborhood was the estate of
Mr. Musters, which was invaded by an excited mob. The dwelling-house
was set on fire, and, although the conflagration was not allowed to
spread far, yet it ended in a tragedy which must always have a peculiar
interest for the lovers of poetry and romance. The wife of Mr. Musters
was the Mary Chaworth made famous by Lord Byron in his poem of the
"Dream," and other poems as well--the Mary Chaworth who was his first
love, and whom, at one time, he believed destined to be his last love
also. Mary Chaworth does not seem to have taken the poet's adoration
very seriously--at all events, she married Mr. Musters, a country
gentleman of good position. Mrs. Musters was in her house on the night
when it was attacked by the mob, and when the fire broke out she fled
into the open park and sought shelter there among the trees. The mob
was dispersed and Mrs. Musters, after a while, was able to return to
her home; but she was in somewhat delicate health, the exposure to the
cold night air of winter proved too much for her, and she became one of
the most innocent victims to the popular passion aroused by the
opposition to the Reform Bill.

{171}

[Sidenote: 1831--The Reform riots]

Bristol was the scene of the most formidable riots during all that
period of disturbance. Sir Charles Wetherell, who had made himself
conspicuous as an opponent of reform, was the Recorder as well as the
representative of Bristol, and his return to the city after the Lords
had thrown out the Bill became the signal for an outbreak of popular
fury. Houses were wrecked in various parts of the city; street fights
took place between the mob and the military, day after day; the