e occupied by the gravels
of former rivers. The Chilterns were formerly covered with a forest of
beech, and there is still a local supply of this wood for the
manufacture of chairs and other articles in the neighbourhood of
Wycombe.

CHILTERN HUNDREDS. An old principle of English parliamentary law
declared that a member of the House of Commons, once duly chosen, could
not _resign_ his seat. This rule was a relic of the days when the local
gentry had to be compelled to serve in parliament. The only method,
therefore, of avoiding the rule came to be by accepting an office of
profit from the crown, a statute of 1707 enacting that every member
accepting an office of profit from the crown should thereby vacate his
seat, but should be capable of re-election, unless the office in
question had been created since 1705, or had been otherwise declared to
disqualify for a seat in parliament. Among the posts of profit held by
members of the House of Commons in the first half of the 18th century
are to be found the names of several crown stewardships, which
apparently were not regarded as places of profit under the crown within
the meaning of the act of 1707, for no seats were vacated by appointment
to them. The first instance of the acceptance of such a stewardship
vacating a seat was in 1740, when the house decided that Sir W.W. Wynn,
on inheriting from his father, in virtue of a royal grant, the
stewardship of the lordship and manor of Bromfield and Yale, had _ipso
facto_ vacated his seat. On the passing of the Place Act of 1742, the
idea of utilizing the appointment to certain crown stewardships
(possibly suggested by Sir W.W. Wynn's case) as a pretext for enabling a
member to resign his seat was carried into practice. These nominal
stewardships were eight in number, but only two survived to be used in
this way in contemporary practice--those of the Chilterns and
Northstead; and when a member wished to vacate his seat, he was
accordingly spoken of as taking the Chiltern Hundreds.

1. _Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, County Bucks._--The
Chiltern Hundreds formed a bailiwick of the ordinary type. They are
situated on the Chiltern Hills, and the depredations of the bandits,
who found shelter within their recesses, became at an early period so
alarming that a special officer, known as the steward of the Chiltern
Hundreds, was appointed for the protection of the inhabitants of the
neighbouring distri