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diff --git a/old/55062-0.txt b/old/55062-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2062306..0000000 --- a/old/55062-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5825 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Inns of Court, by Cecil Headlam - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Inns of Court - -Author: Cecil Headlam - -Illustrator: Gordon Home - -Release Date: July 6, 2017 [EBook #55062] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INNS OF COURT *** - - - - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - - THE INNS OF COURT - - UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME - - - WESTMINSTER ABBEY - - PAINTED BY JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. DESCRIBED BY MRS. A. MURRAY SMITH - -CONTAINING 21 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR. SQ. DEMY 8VO., CLOTH, - GILT TOP PRICE =7/6= NET (POST FREE, PRICE 7/11) - - “In general appearance, in wealth of illustration, and in - trustworthy letterpress, it is a charming book.”--_Guardian._ - - - THE TOWER OF LONDON - - PAINTED BY JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. DESCRIBED BY ARTHUR POYSER - -CONTAINING 20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR. SQ. DEMY 8VO., CLOTH, - GILT TOP PRICE =7/6= NET (POST FREE, PRICE 7/11) - - “Perhaps one of the best books of modern times on the great - fortification.... The fine paintings by Mr. John Fulleylove give - added charm to the book.”--_Globe._ - - - A. & C. BLACK. SOHO SQUARE. LONDON, W. - - - AGENTS - - =AMERICA= THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK - - =AUSTRALASIA= OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS - 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE - - =CANADA= THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. - 27 RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO - - =INDIA= MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. - MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY - 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA - -[Illustration: OLD HALL AND OLD SQUARE FROM THE TOWER OF THE NEW HALL, -LINCOLN’S INN - -On the left is the Old Hall, dating from the reign of Edward VI. -(_circa_ 1555), and the scene of the Chancery case of Jarndyce _v._ -Jarndyce in ‘Bleak House.’ Beyond the Hall are the red roofs of Old -Square, and in the distance the domes of the Central Criminal Court and -St. Paul’s, the latter appearing over a portion of the buildings of the -Record Office.] - - - - - THE INNS - OF COURT - - PAINTED - BY·GORDON·HOME - DESCRIBED - BY·CECIL·HEADLAM - - [Illustration: colophon] - - LONDON - ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK - 1909 - - - - -CONTENTS - - -CHAPTER I - - PAGE - -ORIGIN OF THE INNS 1 - - -CHAPTER II - -THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS 27 - - -CHAPTER III - -THE TEMPLE CHURCH 44 - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE MIDDLE TEMPLE 54 - - -CHAPTER V - -THE INNER TEMPLE 86 - - -CHAPTER VI - -LINCOLN’S INN AND THE DEVIL’S OWN 106 - - -CHAPTER VII - -GRAY’S INN 135 - - -CHAPTER VIII - -INNS OF CHANCERY 165 - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE SERJEANTS AND SERJEANTS’ INNS 186 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - 1. Old Hall and Old Square from the Tower of the New - Hall, Lincoln’s Inn _Frontispiece_ - - FACING PAGE - - 2. Middle Temple Lane 6 - - 3. Interior of the Middle Temple Hall 20 - - 4. Lamb Building from Pump Court, Temple 34 - - 5. Interior of the Temple Church 46 - - 6. The East End of the Temple Church and the Master’s House 56 - - 7. The Middle Temple Gatehouse in Fleet Street 66 - - 8. Fountain Court and Middle Temple Hall 74 - - 9. Middle Temple Library 84 - -10. Hall and Library, Inner Temple 94 - -11. No. 5, King’s Bench Walk, Inner Temple 102 - -12. Old Square, Lincoln’s Inn 112 - -13. The New Gateway and Hall of Lincoln’s Inn 118 - -14. Stone Buildings, Lincoln’s Inn, from the Gardens 128 - -15. A Doorway in South Square, Gray’s Inn 144 - -16. Gray’s Inn Square 154 - -17. The Gabled Houses outside Staple Inn, Holborn 164 - -18. Staple Inn Hall and Courtyard 172 - -19. The Great Hall of the Royal Courts of Justice 176 - -20. Clifford’s Inn 184 - - -_Sketch-plan at end of volume._ - - - - -THE INNS OF COURT - - - - -CHAPTER I - -ORIGIN OF THE INNS - - -The features of every ancient City are marked with the wrinkles and the -scars of Time. The narrow lanes, the winding streets, the huddled -houses, the blind alleys form, as it were, the furrows upon her aged -countenance. They contribute enormously to the charm and beauty of her -riper years, for they point to a life rich in experience and varied -reminiscences. But, like other wrinkles, they have their drawbacks. As -the bottle-neck of Bond Street, which blocks the traffic half the -season, is the direct topographical result of the river which once -flowed thereabouts, so the boundary of the property of the Knights -Templars, marked by the Inner and Middle Temple Gateways, imposes the -southern limit of Fleet Street, opposite to Street’s Gothic pile of Law -Courts and to Chancery Lane. Hence the narrowness of that famous street, -and the consequent congestion of traffic on the main route to the City. -Then come the Beauty Doctors, who smooth out the old wrinkles, and -broaden the ancient, narrow lines, which Time has cut so deeply on the -face of the Town. The old landmarks are removed, and Wren’s gateways and -buildings must disappear in order that broad, straight paths be driven -right to the sanctuary of Business. - -And yet the old influences and the effects of historic movements and -historic events persist, and will persist. It may seem far-fetched to -say that everyone whose business or pleasure takes him to Fleet Street -is directly subject to the influence of the Crusades. Yet it is so. But -for those strange wars of mingled religious enthusiasm and commercial -aggression, there would have been no Templars, and had there been no -Templars, the whole nomenclature and topographical arrangement of this -part of London would have been different; for the Societies of Lawyers, -who succeeded to their property, succeeded, of course, to the boundaries -of the messuages, as to the Round Church of the Knights Templars. - -Of the Temple, and the Templars, and their successors, we shall deal -more at length in their proper places. It will be convenient first to -consider what these Societies of Lawyers were and are, how they arose, -and why they settled in the particular vicinity wherein they have chosen -to set their ‘dusty purlieus.’ - -William the Conqueror had established the Law Courts in his Palace. The -great officers of State and the Barons were the Judges of this King’s -Court--_Aula Regis_--which developed into three distinct divisions: -King’s Bench and Common Pleas, under a Chief Justice, and Exchequer, -where a Chief Baron presided to try all causes relating to the royal -revenue. It was the business of a Norman King to ride about the country -settling the affairs of the realm, which was his estate, and -administering justice. The great Court of Justice, therefore, naturally -accompanied the King in all his progresses, and suitors were obliged to -follow and to find him, travelling for that purpose from all parts of -the country to London, to Exeter, or to York. - -It was a system that was found ‘cumbersome, painful, and chargeable to -the people,’ as Stow[1] puts it, and one of the provisions of Magna -Charta accordingly enacted that the Court of Common Pleas should no -longer follow the King, but be held in some determined place. The place -determined was Westminster. The Court was held, though not at first, in -the famous Hall, which William Rufus had erected and Richard II. -rebuilt. - -It was to be expected that the fixing of the Courts would be followed by -the settlement of ‘Students in the Law and the Ministers of each -Court,’[2] as Dugdale has it, somewhere near at hand. Advocates had been -drawn at first from the ranks of the clergy. This was natural enough, -seeing that they formed the only educated class of the day. _Nullus -clericus nisi causidicus_, the historian complains. It was equally -natural that in the course of time objection should be taken to the -spectacle of the professors of Christianity wrangling at the Bar, and -monopolizing the power born of legal knowledge. Dugdale notes the first -instance of an attempt to check their presence in the Courts as -occurring at the beginning of the reign of Henry III. The clergy were at -length excluded from practising in the Civil Courts, and a privileged -class of lay Lawyers came into existence. Edward I. specially appointed -the Justices of the Court of Common Pleas to ‘ordain from every County -certain Attorneys and Lawyers of the best and most apt for their -learning and skill, who might do service to his Court and People, and -who alone should follow his Court and transact affairs therein.’ - -And at this date, or shortly after it, we may assume that ‘students in -the University of the Laws’[3] began to congregate in Hostels, or Inns, -of Court, in order to study as ‘apprentices’ in the Guild of Law. For, -as at Oxford or Cambridge, an Inn, or Hostel of residence, was the -natural necessary requirement of such students when they began to come -in numbers to sit at the feet of their teachers, the Masters of Law. The -earliest mention of an Inn for housing apprentices of the Law occurs in -1344, in a demise from the Lady Clifford of the house near Fleet Street, -called Clifford’s Inn, to the _apprenticiis de banco_, the lawyers -belonging to the Court of Common Pleas. And Thavie’s Inn was similarly -leased from one John Thavie, ‘a worthy citizen and armourer,’ of London, -who died in 1348. In such hostels, leased to the senior members, -voluntary associations, or guilds of teachers and learners of law would -congregate, and gradually evolve their own regulations and customs. - -Other references occur to the ‘apprentices in hostels’ during this same -reign (Edward III.). And from about this date the four Inns of -Court--Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, and the Inner and Middle -Temple--‘which are almost coincident in antiquity, similar in -constitution, and identical in purpose,’[4] begin to emerge from the -mists of the past. - -It is noticeable that all the Inns of Court and Chancery cluster about -the borders of the City Ward called Faringdon Without, and were once -placed, as old Sir John Fortescue observed, ‘in the suburbs, out of the -noise and turmoil of the City.’ - -The Lawyers were thus conveniently placed between the seat of judicature -at Westminster and the centre of business in the City of London, and -secured the advantage of ‘ready access to the one and plenty of -provisions in the other.’ In the wall which bounds the Temple Gardens -upon the modern Embankment of the Thames is set a stone which marks the -western boundary of the Liberty of the City and the spot where Queen -Victoria received the City Sword (1900); the old Bar of the City, which -took its name from the Temple, and - -[Illustration: MIDDLE TEMPLE LANE - -THE overhanging buildings just inside Sir Christopher Wren’s Gateway in -Fleet Street (see p. 67).] - -Holborn Bar, marked the limit farther north. It is to be remembered that -this famous Temple Bar did not mark the boundary of the City proper, but -only of the later extension known as the Liberty of the City, and the -Temple buildings within the Bar were yet without the narrower boundary -of the City. - -Temple Bar consisted originally of a post, rails, and chain. Next, a -house of timber was erected across the street, with a narrow gateway and -entry on the south side under the house.[5] This was superseded about -1670 by the stone gate-house, designed by Christopher Wren, which was -the scene of so many historic pageants when Lord Mayors have received -their Sovereigns, and presented to them the keys of the City. It was -here, notably, that the Lord Mayor delivered the City sword to good -Queen Bess when she rode to St. Paul’s to return thanks for the victory -over the Spanish Armada. Hereon, as upon London Bridge, the heads of -famous criminals or rebels were stuck to warn the passers-by; and in the -pillory here stood Titus Oates and Daniel de Foe--the latter for -publishing his scandalous and seditious pamphlet, ‘The Shortest Way with -the Dissenters.’ The citizens, however, pelted De Foe, not with rotten -eggs, but with flowers. This noble gate-house was removed when the -Strand was widened and the new Law Courts erected. It was rebuilt at -Meux Park, Waltham Cross, and its original site is marked by a column -surmounted by a griffin, representing the City arms (1880). - -It would appear that the Lawyers in choosing sites just outside the City -boundaries for the Inns of their University were further influenced by -the ordinance of Henry III. (1234), which enjoined the Mayor and -Sheriffs to see to it that ‘no man should set up Schools of Law within -the City.’ The object of this prohibition is a matter of dispute; -Stubbs, for instance, maintaining that it applied to Canon Law, and -others[6] that only Civil Law was intended, the object being to confine -the clergy to the Theology and Canon Law, which seemed more properly -their province. - -By the middle of the fourteenth century, then, we find the students of -what we may call a London University of National Law established in -their Inns or Hostels, which clustered about the boundaries of the City, -from Holborn to Chancery Lane, from Fleet Street to the River. The -Schools of Law, of which this University was composed, were -distinctively English, and the University itself developed upon the -peculiarly English lines of a College system, closely similar to that of -Oxford and Cambridge. The Inns of Court and Chancery were the Colleges -of Lawyers in the London University of Jurisprudence. - -Here dwelt, and here were trained for the Courts those guilds or -fraternities of Lawyers, according to a scheme of oral and practical -education which they gradually evolved. Trade Guilds were the basis of -medieval social life, and medieval Universities were, in fact, nothing -more nor less than Guilds of Study.[7] The four Inns of Court survive -to-day as instances of the old Guilds of Law in London, and the lawyers, -in their relations with the Courts, the public and solicitors, seem to -represent still a highly organized Trade Union. - -The Inns of Court, then, have always exhibited, and still retain, the -salient features of a University based upon the procedure of the -medieval Guild. Just as, in other Universities, no one was allowed to -teach until he had served an apprenticeship of terms, and, having been -duly approved by the Masters of their Art, had received his degree or -diploma of teaching; just as no butcher or tailor was allowed to ply his -trade until he had qualified himself and had been duly approved by the -Masters of his Guild, so in the Masters of these Guilds of Law was -vested the monopoly of granting the legal degree, or call to practise at -the Bar, to apprentices who had served a stipulated term of study and -passed the ordeal of certain oral and practical preparation. And as -though to emphasize beyond dispute the Collegiate nature of these -Societies, we find that each one of them made haste to provide itself -with buildings and surroundings, which still present to us, in the midst -of the dirt and turmoil of busy London, something of the charm and -seclusion and self-sufficiency of an Oxford College, with its Hall and -Chapel, its residential buildings, its Library, and grassy quadrangles, -and its Gateway to insure its privacy. - -The same system of discipline, of celibate life, of a common Hall, of -residence in community, and of compulsory attendance at the services of -the Church, which marked the ordinary life of a medieval University, was -repeated at the Inns of Court. - -And the kind of Collegiate Order into which they shaped themselves was -also shown by the several grades existing within the Societies -themselves. The word ‘barrister’ itself perpetuates the ancient -discipline of the Inns, where the dais of the governing body, or -Benchers, corresponding to the High Table of an Oxford College, was -separated by a bar from the profane crowd of the Hall. The Halls of the -Inns were not only the scenes of that business of eating and drinking, -the ‘dinners’ to which so much attention was devoted, and by which the -students ‘eat their way to the Bench,’ but also the centres of the -social life and educational system of these Guilds. - -Dugdale gives at length the degrees of Tables in the Halls of the -Inns--the Benchers’ Tables, the tables of the Utter Barristers, the -tables of the Inner-Bar, and the Clerks’ Commons, and, without the -screen, the Yeoman’s Table for Benchers’ Clerks. - -The _Utter-_ or _Outer Barristers_ ranked next to the Benchers. They -were the advanced students who, after they had attained a certain -standing, were called from the body of the Hall to the first place -outside the bar for the purpose of taking part in the _moots_ or public -debates on points of law. The _Inner Barristers_ assembled near the -centre of the Hall. - -‘For the space of seven years or thereabouts,’ says Stow, ‘they frequent -readings, meetings, boltinges, and other learned exercises, whereby -growing ripe in the knowledge of the lawes, and approved withal to be of -honest conversation, they are either by the general consent of the -Benchers or Readers, being of the most auncient, grave and iudiciall men -of everie Inn of the Court, or by the special priviledge of the present -Reader there, selected and called to the degree of Utter Barristers, and -so enabled to be Common Counsellors, and to practise the law, both in -their Chambers, and at the Barres.’ - -Readers, to help the younger students, were chosen from the Utter -Barristers. From the Utter Barristers, too, were chosen by the Benchers -‘the chiefest and best learned’ to increase the number of the Bench and -to be Readers there also. After this ‘second reading’ the young -Barrister was named an Apprentice at the Law, and might be advanced at -the pleasure of the Prince, as Stow says, to the place of Serjeant, ‘and -from the number of Serjeants also the void places of Judges are likewise -ordinarily filled.’ ‘From thenceforth they hold not any roome in those -Innes of Court, being translated to the Serjeants’ Innes, where none -but the Serjeants and Judges do converse’ (Stow, i., pp. 78, 79). - -Upon the Benchers, or Ancients, devolved the government of the Inn, and -from their number a treasurer was chosen annually. - -_Readings_ and _Mootings_ would seem to have been the chief forms of -legal training provided by the Societies, and they may be said roughly -to represent the theoretical and practical side of their system of -education. As to Readings, the procedure in general was as follows: -Every year the Benchers chose two Readers, who entered upon their duties -to the accompaniment of the most elaborate ceremonial and feasting. Then -upon certain solemn occasions it was the duty of one of them to deliver -a lecture upon some statute rich in nice points of law. The Reader would -first explain the whole matter at large, and after summing up the -various arguments bearing on the case, would deliver his opinion. The -Utter Barristers then discussed with him the points that had been -raised, after which some of the Judges and Serjeants present gave their -opinions in turn.[8] - -I have referred to the _feasting_ that attended the appointment of the -Readers. We have seen that medieval Universities were Guilds of -Learning, scholastic fraternities of masters or students, who framed -rules and exacted compliance with certain tests of skill, precisely in -the same way as did the masters and apprentices of ordinary manual -trades. It was a universal feature of the Guilds, whether of manual -crafts or of Learning, that the newly-elected Master was expected to -entertain the Fraternity to which he had been admitted, or in which he -had just been raised to the full honours of Mastership. And just as at -Oxford, Cambridge, or Paris, a Master was obliged to give a feast, or -even some more sumptuous form of hospitality, such as a tilt or tourney, -upon the attainment of his degree, so at the Inns of Court the -newly-appointed Reader was obliged by custom to entertain the Benchers -and Barristers in Hall. It was the general experience everywhere that -such entertainments tended to increase in splendour and costliness, and -to be a severe tax upon the resources of the new Masters, and a check, -consequently, upon the number of aspirants. So here the excessive -charges attending Readers’ feasts led to a decrease in the Readers, -which was regarded as tending to ‘an utter overthrow to the learning and -study of the Law,’ and the Justices of both Benches accordingly issued -an order insisting upon their observance, and at the same time -regulating the amount that a Reader might expend upon ‘diet in the -Hall.’ - -_Moots_ were a kind of rehearsal of real trials at the Bar. They were -cases argued in Hall by the Utter and Inner Barristers before the -Benchers. - -When the horn had blown to dinner, says Dugdale, a paper containing -notice of the Case which was to be argued after dinner was laid upon the -salt. Then, after dinner, in open Hall, the mock-trial began. An Inner -Barrister advanced to the table, and there propounded in Law-French--an -exceedingly hybrid lingo--some kind of action on behalf of an imaginary -client. Another Inner Barrister replied in defence of the fictitious -defendant, and the Reader and Benchers gave their opinions in turn. - -As in other Universities, other subjects besides Law were included in -the educational curriculum. - -‘Upon festival days,’ says Fortescue, who wrote in the seventeenth -century, ‘after the offices of the Church are over, they employ -themselves in the study of sacred and profane history; here everything -which is good and virtuous is to be learned, all vice is discouraged and -banished. So that knights, barons, and the greatest nobility of the -kingdom often place their children in those Inns of Court, to form their -manners, and to preserve them from the contagion of vice.’ - -As time went on, in fact, the Inns of Court gradually changed their -character, and became a kind of aristocratic University, where many of -the leading men in politics and literature received a general training -and education. - -And whilst Oxford and Cambridge, essentially more democratic, drew their -students chiefly from the yeoman and artisan class, the Inns of Court -became the fashionable colleges for young noblemen and gentlemen. - -Throughout the Renaissance, indeed, the Inns of Court men were the -leaders of Society, and the Gentlemen of the Long Robe laid down the -law, not only upon questions of politics, but upon points of taste, of -dress, and of art. - -In the reign of Henry VI. the four Inns of Court contained each 200 -persons, and the ten Inns of Chancery 100 each. The expense of -maintaining the students there was so great that ‘the sons of gentlemen -do only study the Law in these hostels.’ - -‘There is scarce an eminent lawyer who is not a gentleman by birth and -fortune,’ says Fortescue; ‘consequently they have a greater regard for -their character and honour.’ - -And John Ferne, a student of the Inner Temple, wrote,[9] in 1586, -especially commending the wisdom of the regulation that none should be -admitted to the Houses of Court except he were a gentleman of blood, -since ‘nobleness of blood, joyned with virtue, compteth the person as -most meet to the enterprizing of any publick service.’ - -Shortly after the accession of James I., a royal mandate denied -admission to a House of Court to anyone that was ‘not a gentleman by -descent.’ - -‘The younger sort,’ says Stow (1603), ‘are either gentlemen, or the sons -of gentlemen, or of other most welthie persons.’ - -It is one of the almost unvarying features of a Guild that a fixed -period of apprenticeship must be served before admission to be a Master. -The term of apprenticeship in the Inns of Court has varied with each -Society, and in different epochs. - -In June, 1596, the period of probation which must be spent by a student -in attending preliminary exercises in the Inns, before graduating in -Law, was limited by an ordinance of the Judges and Benchers to seven -years. Before that date the ‘exercises’ necessary for ‘a call to the -Bar’ occupied eight years, during which twelve grand moots must be -attended in one of the Inns of Chancery, and twenty petty moots in term -time before the Readers of one of the greater Societies. - -But in 1617, in a ‘Parliament’ of the Benchers of the Inner Temple, it -was ordained that ‘no man shall be called to the Bar before he has been -full eight years of the House.’ Nor was lapse of time to be considered -sufficient without proportionate acquisition of learning. Only ‘painful -and sufficient students’ were to be called, who had ‘frequented and -argued grand and petty moots in the Inns of Chancery, and brought in -moots and argued clerks’ common cases within this House.’ A proviso -against outside influence was added by the injunction that ‘anyone who -procured letters from any great person to the Treasurer or Benchers in -order to be called to the Bar, should forever be disqualified from -receiving that degree within that House.’ - -In the seventeenth century, however, ‘readings’ and ‘mootings’ alike -fell into desuetude, and official instruction practically disappeared. -The Inns became merely formal institutions, residence within the walls -of which, indicated by the eating of dinners, was alone necessary for -admittance to the Bar. The loss of the Law was the gain of Letters. A -new class of students, educated in literature and politics, and highly -born, were bred up to take their place in the direction of affairs and -the criticism of writers. - -‘When the “readings” with their odds and ends of law-French and Latin -went out into the darkness of oblivion, polite literature stepped into -their place. “Wood’s Institutes” and “Finch’s Law” shared a divided -reign with Beaumont and Fletcher, Butler and Dryden, Congreve and Aphra -Behn. The “pert Templar” became a critic of _belles lettres_, and -foremost among the wits, whereas his predecessors had been simply -regarded by the outer world as a race that knew or cared for little else -save black-letter tomes and musty precedents. Polite literature -ultimately came to clothe the very forms of law with an elegance of -diction not dreamed of in the philosophy of the older jurists, and thus -deprived an arduous study of one of its most repellent features.’[10] - -Another cause which greatly contributed to the brilliant record of the -Inns as homes of Literature and the Drama, as well as of the Law, was -the rule which, up till quite a few years ago, compelled Irish -Law-students to keep a certain number of terms in London prior to ‘call’ -at the King’s Inn, Dublin. Daniel O’Connell, at Lincoln’s Inn, Curran, -Flood, Grattan, the orators; Tom Moore, the poet, and Richard Brinsley -Sheridan, the dramatist, at the Temple, are among the later ‘Wild -Irishmen’ who owed something to the London Inns in accordance with this -rule, and rewarded the Metropolis with their eloquence and wit. - -In modern times the need of general regulations as to qualification by -the keeping of terms and of examinations as a guarantee of competency -has been recognized. - -After over 200 years of survival as an obsolete office, Readerships have -been revived again to perform their proper functions. ‘A council of -eight Benchers, representing all the Inns of Court, was appointed to -frame lectures “open to the members of each society,” and five -Readerships were established in several branches of legal science -(1852). Attendance at these lectures was made compulsory, unless the -candidate preferred submitting to an examination in Roman and English -Law and Constitutional History. Three years - -[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL - -THE date of its erection (1570) is in the stained-glass window on the -right. In this Hall Queen Elizabeth may have danced with Sir Christopher -Hatton, and here Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ was first performed (see -pp. 75-78).] - -later, a Royal Commission advised the establishment of a preliminary and -final examination for all Bar students, together with the formation of a -Law University with power to confer degrees in Law. The suggestions of -the Commission were only partially acted upon, and then not till 1870, -when Lord Chancellor Westbury succeeded in getting a preliminary -examination in Latin and English subjects adopted and the final -examination made obligatory.’[11] - -And it is pleasant to note, too, that about the same time (1875) the -custom of the ancient mootings, so useful for promoting ready address -and sound knowledge of the Law among the aspirants to the Bar, was -revived at Gray’s Inn. - -The discipline which the Inns of Court enforced upon their students -corresponded in general to that exercised by an Oxford or Cambridge -College. - -Fines and ‘putting out of Commons’ were the usual forms of punishment, -though the power of imprisoning ‘gentlemen of the House’ for wilful -misdemeanour and disobedience ‘was sometimes exercised by the Masters of -the Bench.’[12] - -Attendance at Divine Service was insisted upon, and the wearing of long -beards forbidden. A beard of over three weeks’ growth was subject to a -fine of 20s. A student’s gown and a round cap must be worn in Hall and -in Church, and gentlemen of these Societies were forbidden to go into -the City in boots and spurs, or into Hall with any weapon except -daggers. They were forbidden to keep Hawkes, or to ill-treat the -Butlers. They were not allowed to play shove-groat. In the reign of -Elizabeth, by an order of the Judges for all the Inns of Court, the -wearing of a sword or buckler, of a beard above a fortnight’s growth, or -of great hose, great ruffs, any silk or fur, was equally forbidden, and -no Fellow of these Societies was allowed to go into the City or suburbs -‘otherwise than in his gown according to the ancient usage of the -gentlemen of the Inns of Court,’ upon penalty of expulsion for the third -transgression. The wearing of gowns of a sad colour was enjoined by -Philip and Mary, and long hair, or curled, was forbidden as surely as -white doublets and velvet. These are echoes of the ordinary sumptuary -laws of the period. - -‘There is both in the Inns of Court and the Inns of Chancery,’ says -Fortescue, ‘a sort of an Academy or Gymnasium fit for persons of their -station, where they learn singing and all kinds of music, dancing and -Revels.’ These forms of recreation constituted, indeed, the lighter side -of the educational and social life of the Inns. - -All-Hallowe’en, Candlemas, and Ascension Day, were the grand days for -‘dancing, revelling, and musick,’ when, before the Judges and Benchers -seated at the upper end of the Hall, the Utter Barristers and Inner -Barristers performed ‘a solemn revel,’ which was followed by a -post-revel, when ‘some of the Gentlemen of the Inner-Barr do present the -House with dancing.’[13] On occasions of more particular festivity, even -so great dignitaries as the Lord-Chancellor, the Justices, Serjeants, -and Benchers, would dance round the coal fire which blazed beneath the -louvre in the centre of the Hall, whilst the verses of the Song of the -House rang out in rousing chorus, like the song of the Mallard of All -Souls, at Oxford. - -Dugdale gives the order of the Christmas ceremonies in delightful -detail: ‘At night, before supper, are revels and dancing, and so also -after supper, during the twelve daies of Christmas. The antientest -Master of the Revels is after dinner and supper to sing a carol or song, -and command other gentlemen then there present to sing with him and the -company.’ On Christmas Day ‘Service in the Church ended, the gentlemen -presently repair into the Hall, to breakfast with Brawn, Mustard and -Malmsey,’ and so forth. The good-fellowship and the long evenings of -Christmastide had natural issue in the production of plays and masques -in these Halls, by students who have always been in close touch with the -drama. It is not surprising, therefore, that one of Shakespeare’s plays -was written for Twelfth Night, and first produced by the students of -Law, at the Temple, for this merry and convivial season (see Chapter -IV.). - -On St. Stephen’s Day the Lord of Misrule was abroad, and at dinner and -afterwards games and pageants were performed about the fire that burned -in the centre of the Hall, and whence the smoke escaped through the open -chimney in the roof. For instance: ‘Then cometh in the Master of the -Game apparelled in green velvet, and the Ranger of the Forest also, in a -green suit of satten, bearing in his hand a green bow and divers arrows, -with either of them a hunting horn about their necks; blowing together -three blasts of Venery, they pace round about the fire three times.’ -They make obeisance to the Lord Chancellor, and then ‘a Huntsman cometh -into the Hall, with a Fox and a Purse-net, with a Cat, both bound at the -end of a staff, and with them nine or ten couple of Hounds. And the Fox -and Cat are by the Hounds set upon, and killed beneath the fire’ -(Dugdale). - -The Post Revels, we are told, were ‘performed by the better sort of the -young gentlemen of the Societies, with Galliards, Corrantoes, or else -with Stage-plays.’ Masques were frequently performed by the members of -the Inns, and Sir Christopher Hatton first obtained Queen Elizabeth’s -favour by his appearance in a masque prepared by the lawyers. - -Besides the solemnities of Christmas and Readers’ Feasts, the _Antique -Masques and Revelries_, as Wynne in his ‘Eunomus’ observes (ii., p. -253), ‘introduced upon extraordinary occasions, as to the grandeur of -the preparations, the dignity of the performers and of the spectators, -at which our Kings and Queens have condescended to be so often present, -seem to have exceeded every public exhibition of the kind.’ - -One famous masque was presented by the four Inns of Court to Charles I. -and Henrietta (1633), which cost some £24,000. So pleased were the King -and Queen with ‘the noble bravery of it,’ and the answer implied in it -to Prynne’s ‘Histrio Mastix,’ that they returned the compliment by -inviting 120 gentlemen of the Inns of Court to the masque at Whitehall -on Shrove Tuesday. - -If these and other old customs have fallen into abeyance, the -traditional spirit of sociability is far from being dead, and on ‘Grand -Nights’ their old habit of hospitality is gratefully revived by the Inns -of Court in favour of famous men, who are honoured as their guests. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS - - -About the year 1118 certain noblemen, horsemen, religiously bent, bound -themselves by vow in the hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, ‘to serve -Christ after the manner of Regular Canons in chastity and obedience, and -to renounce their owne proper willes for ever.’ - -The Order was founded by a Burgundian Knight who had mightily -distinguished himself at the capture of Jerusalem. Hugh de Paganis was -his name. Only seven of his comrades joined the Brotherhood at first. - -Their first profession was to safeguard pilgrims on their way to visit -the Holy Sepulchre, and to keep the highways safe from thieves. A rule -and a white habit were granted to this pilgrims’ police by Pope Honorius -II. Crosses of red cloth were afterwards added to their white upper -garments, and earned them the familiar title of the Red-Cross Knights. -And for their first banner they adopted the Beaucéant, the upper part of -which was black, signifying, it is said, death to their enemies; the -lower part white, symbolizing love for their friends. - -Their services were rewarded and their efforts encouraged by Baldwin, -King of Jerusalem, who granted them quarters in his palace, within the -sacred enclosure of the Temple on Mount Moriah. - -Hence they came to be known as the Knights of the Temple, or Knights -Templars. For Baldwin’s Palace was formed partly of a building erected -by the Emperor Justinian, partly of a mosque built by the Caliph Omar, -upon the site of Solomon’s Temple. - -The Order increased rapidly in popularity. It spread over Europe and the -East, accumulating property and privileges. It was most highly -organized, and at its head was a Grand Master, who resided at first in -Jerusalem. A visit paid by the Founder, Paganis, to Henry I. in Normandy -led to the establishment of settlements in England. Cambridge, -Canterbury, Warwick, and Dover are mentioned amongst others by Stow. -Temples, ‘built after the form of the Temple near to the Sepulchre at -Jerusalem,’ were erected in many of the chief towns in England. And -this circular shape of church, modelled upon the Holy Sepulchre in -accordance with a prevailing love of imitating the holy places at -Jerusalem, as, for instance, the Stations of the Cross, was the design -adopted for the Templars’ London Churches. The date of their first -settlement in London is not certain, but about the middle of the twelfth -century they are said to have established themselves in Chancery Lane, -between Southampton Buildings and Holborn Bars. Their property, which -was afterwards to be known as the Old Temple, embraced part of the site -of what is now Lincoln’s Inn. The foundations of a round church were -discovered in 1595 near the site of the present Southampton Buildings. - -But it was not long before they moved to a pleasanter site, to the ‘most -elegant spot in the Metropolis,’ as Charles Lamb declared. For, about -the year 1180, the Templars acquired a large meadow sloping down to the -broad River Thames, on the south side of Fleet Street, and stretching -from Whitefriars on the east to Essex Street on the west. Here they -built themselves a lordly dwelling-place and a splendid Church, again a -round Church upon the same sacred model, part of which still stands. -Across the way lay their recreation ground. For the site of the modern -Law Courts--that Gothic pile which we can never wholly see, and in which -Street just failed to design a truly complete, effective, and absolute -building, and failed entirely to produce a building practically suited -for its purpose--was known then as Fitchett’s Field. The scene of the -labours of the Lawyers, who have succeeded to their inheritance, was -once the tilting-ground of the Knights Templars. - -Five years later, in 1185, in the presence of Henry II. and all his -Court, the dedication of the Round Church of the ‘New Temple’ took -place. The ceremony was performed by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem. - -The surroundings of the ‘New Temple,’ when Henry graced it upon this -occasion with his royal presence, were extraordinarily different even -from the aspect they wore a century later. - -Fleet Street itself was not yet in existence. Its neighbourhood was a -mere marsh, and Fleet Ditch, at the bottom of Ludgate Hill, was spanned -by no bridge. The two highways to the City, when the Templars first -settled at this spot, were first and foremost the River, and, secondly, -by land, the old Roman Way through Newgate, up Holborn Hill to Holborn -Bars, striking southwards from St. Mary-le-Strand, past the Roman Bath, -to the River. But seventy years later a new main route to the City was -constructed, which passed by the boundary of the Templars’ plot. For the -marshes were drained, a bridge was thrown across the Fleet, and the -‘Street of Fleetbrigge’ came into existence. - -The grandeur of the ceremony of dedication and the splendour of the -Templars’ Church itself indicate clearly enough the importance of the -‘New Temple’ as the headquarters of the Order in England, and also the -waxing wealth and power of the Order itself. - -For these ‘fellow-soldiers of Christ,’ as they termed themselves, ‘poor -and of the Temple of Solomon,’ had bound themselves to a vow of poverty, -but they soon changed their allegiance to Mammon. The heraldic sign of -the Winged Horse, which is now the well-known badge of the Inner Temple, -and meets the eye at every turn as we pass through the narrow lanes and -devious courts of which their property is composed, recalls and typifies -the changing purposes of the ancient Templars and their successors. For -the old crest of the Templars was a horse carrying two men, which -probably was intended to suggest their profession of helping Christian -pilgrims upon their road, but in which some saw an emblem of humiliation -and of a vow to poverty so strict that they could afford but one horse -for two knights. Whatever its significance, the badge was changed with -changing circumstances. The two riders were converted into two wings, -and the horse transformed into a Pegasus--Pegasus argent on a field -azure--upon the occasion of some Christmas Revels and pageantry held at -the Inner Temple in honour of Lord Robert Dudley, 1563, when it appears -that this emblem, typical of the soaring ambitions of the new Society, -was adopted by that Inn. The Middle Temple appropriated another badge, -which the Templars had assumed in the thirteenth century. This was the -sign of the _Agnus Dei_, the Holy Lamb, with the banner and nimbus, -which figures so prominently upon the buildings of this Inn. These -heraldic signs of Winged Horse and Holy Lamb should be encouraging to -the young litigant, who, in his first experience of the Law, may be led -to expect ‘justice without guile and law without delay’ from these legal -fraternities, supposing that, in the words of the witty skit, - - ‘The Lamb sets forth their innocence, - The Horse their expedition.’ - -The Order of Templars followed the almost invariable practice of such -Institutions in accumulating treasure at the expense of the devout, and -they succeeded more strikingly than most. By the beginning of the -fourteenth century they had long abandoned all pretence to the -performance of their original duties, but had at least earned the -reputation of being exceedingly wealthy. The Treasury, indeed, of these -devotees of Poverty was a prominent feature of their House, and they -seem to have acted as Bankers, to whom the charge of money and jewels -was entrusted in those troublous times. - -Here King John stored his Royal Treasury; here he often lodged, seeking -refuge from his Barons; and here he passed the night before he signed -the Great Charter at Runnymede. Henry III. followed his example in -endowing the Temple with manors and privileges, whilst from his -guardian, Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, whom he had imprisoned in the -Tower, he extracted all the Treasure that careful nobleman had committed -to the custody of the Master of the Temple. - -Hither came King Edward I., and under pretence of seeing his mother’s -jewels there laid up, this royal burglar broke open the coffers of -certain persons who had likewise lodged their money here, and took away -to the value of a thousand pounds. - -Of the Templars’ Treasure House nothing now remains, but the Treasurer -survives, one of the chief officials of the Inn, whose duties correspond -roughly to those of a Bursar of an Oxford College. - -The laying up of treasure upon earth is always apt to provoke the -predatory instinct, even in the breast of a Chancellor of the Exchequer, -and to the motive of greed was added, in the case of the Templars, the -unanswerable charge that they had done nothing for many years to redeem -their vows to succour Jerusalem or protect pilgrims. They were also -accused, not without reason, of indulging in odious vices, and of being -a masonic society devoted to the propagation of some heresy. The rival -fraternity of military Knights, the Order of St. John, who had settled -themselves in the rural seclusion of Clerkenwell, envied them. The Pope -himself turned against them. Philip le Bel, who seems to have been the -leading spirit in a general attack, dealt cruelly with the Order in -France, causing the chief Members of it to be put to death. In England -Edward II. contented himself with confiscating their possessions. The -Order was abolished (1312), and, by decree of the Pope, - -[Illustration: LAMB BUILDING FROM PUMP COURT, TEMPLE - -A GLIMPSE of the Temple Church appears on the left.] - -confirmed by the Council of Vienne, all their property was granted to -the Knights Hospitallers, the rival Order of St. John of Jerusalem. -Edward, however, at first ignored their claims. He granted that part of -the Templars’ domain which was not within the City boundaries, and which -is now represented by the Outer Temple, to Walter de Stapleton, Bishop -of Exeter. It was thenceforth known indifferently as Stapleton Inn, -Exeter Inn, or the Outer Temple. It passed by purchase to Robert -Devereux, Earl of Essex. Essex House was then erected, which, with its -gardens, covered the site now occupied by Essex Court, Devereux Court, -and Essex Street, and the buildings that abut upon the Strand. - -The Gate at the end of Essex Street, with the staircase to the water, is -the only portion of the old building that survives. The Outer Temple was -never occupied by any College or Society of Lawyers. But the history of -the portion of the Templars’ property which lay within the liberties of -the City, indicated by Temple Bar, was destined to be very different. -This property was granted by Edward II. to Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. On -his rebellion the estate reverted to the Crown, and was granted, in -1322, to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. He died without issue, and -Edward bestowed the property upon his new favourite, Hugh le Despencer, -upon whose attainder it passed again to the Crown. At length the claim -of the Knights Hospitallers was admitted. For in 1324 Edward II. -assigned to them ‘all the lands of the Templars,’ except, of course, -some nineteen-twentieths which King and Pope ‘touched’ in transference. -The King finally made to them an absolute grant of the whole Temple, -apart from the Outer Temple, in consideration of £100 contributed for -the wars. - -What happened next it is impossible, owing to lack of documentary -evidence, with certainty to say. This absence of evidence is partly due, -no doubt, to the behaviour of Wat Tyler’s men in 1381, as quoted by -Stow. For they not only sacked and burned John of Gaunt’s noble palace, -the neighbouring Savoy, but also ‘destroyed and plucked down the houses -and lodgings of the Temple, and took out of the Church the books and -records that were in Hutches of the apprentices of the law, carried them -into the streets and burnt them.’ And later records must have -disappeared in other ways, notably in the fire of 1678. Be that as it -may, the fact with which everybody is familiar is that the Temple -property passed into the occupancy, and finally into the possession, of -two Societies of Lawyers, who existed, and still exist, on terms of -absolute equality, neither taking precedence of the other, and both -sharing equally the Round Church of the Knights Templars. These two -Societies or Inns are called after the property of the Knights within -the boundaries of the City, which they divided between them--the Inner -and the Middle Temple. - -Now, the first discoverable mention of the Temple as an abode of lawyers -occurs in Chaucer’s ‘Prologue to the Canterbury Tales’ (_c._ 1387). -Geoffrey Chaucer himself, a fond tradition would have us believe, dwelt -for a while in these Courts, and was a student of the Inner Temple. Be -that as it may, he tells us - - ‘A manciple there was of a Temple ... - Of Masters had he mo than thrice ten, - That were of Law expert and curious; - Of which there was a dozen in that house - Worthy to been Stewards of rent and land - Of any Lord that is in England,’ etc. - -Here, then, we have a clear indication of a Society of Masters dwelling -in the Temple, whilst Walsingham’s account of Wat Tyler’s rebellion -refers to apprentices of the Law there. But there is nothing to indicate -the existence of the two Inns till about the middle of the fifteenth -century, when we find references to them in the Paston Letters (1440 -_ff._), and in the Black Book of Lincoln’s Inn (1466 _ff._). This does -not, of course, prove that there was only one Inn before. Such, however, -is the traditional account. ‘In spite of the damage done by the rebels -under Wat Tyler,’ says Dugdale, ‘the number of students so increased -that at length they divided themselves in two bodies--the Society of the -Inner and the Society of the Middle Temple.’ Those who believe this -maintain that when, in course of natural development--rapid expansion -apparently following the rebels’ onslaught--the original Society had -attained an unwieldy bulk and outgrown the capacity of the Old Hall, a -split was made. Two distinct and divided Societies, upon a footing of -absolute equality, took the place of the parent body. A new Hall was -built, but equal rights in the Old Church and the contiguous property -were maintained. - -This form of propagation by subdivision is common enough, of course, in -the vegetable and insect world, but it seems highly improbable in the -case of a learned body. It is to me an incredible dichotomy. And it is -not necessary to stretch one’s credulity so far. There are -indications--faint, it is true, but still indications--of the existence -of two Societies of Lawyers settled here on two parcels of land that -once belonged to the Knights Templars, and dating from almost the -earliest days after Edward’s confiscation. - -For, according to Dugdale, who repeats a tradition which is probably -correct, the Knights Hospitallers leased the property soon after they -had acquired it to ‘divers apprentices of the Law that came from -Thavie’s Inn in Holborn’ at an annual rental of £10. This must have been -before 1348. For in that year died John Thavye, who bequeathed this Inn -to his wife, and described it in his will as one ‘in which certain -apprentices of the Law _used_ to reside’ (_solebant_). But there is also -evidence of another and earlier settlement of lawyers on this property. -Some lawyers, it is recorded, ‘made a composition with the Earl of -Lancaster for a lodging in the Temple, and so came thither and have -continued ever since.’[14] The Earl of Lancaster, as we have seen above, -held the Temple _c._ 1315-1322. - -Here, then, we have indications of two Societies of Lawyers settling in -the Temple. The first body, holding from the Earl of Lancaster, may -reasonably be supposed to have had their grant confirmed by the owners -who succeeded him. The Society of the Middle Temple must be considered -the successors of those tenants. And this Society Mr. Pitt Lewis, -K.C.,[15] has traced to a former home in St. George’s Inn, a students’ -hostel mentioned by Stow. - -The second body, migrating from Thavye’s Inn, obtained a lease of the -part not occupied by the former, at an annual rental of £10, as Dugdale -states. And from them are descended the Inner Templars of to-day. - -From the time when the Order of the Knights Hospitallers was dissolved, -till 1608, these two Societies held these two separate parcels of land -direct of the Crown by lease, paying two separate rents. Then they -discovered that James I. was beginning to negotiate a sale of the -freehold. - -The present of a ‘stately cup of pure gold, filled with gold pieces,’ -presented by the two Societies, converted the Scholar-Monarch. On August -13, 1608, he granted a Charter to the Treasurers and Benchers of the -Inner and Middle Temple, conferring upon them the freehold of the -Temple, together with the Church, ‘for the hospitation and education of -the Professors and Students of the Laws of this Realm,’ subject to a -rent charge of £10, payable by each of the two Societies. In 1673 these -rents were extinguished by purchase by the two Societies. - -This patent of James I. is the only existing formal document concerning -the relations between the Crown and the Inns, though it would be strange -indeed if no other grant or patent ever existed. It is preserved in the -Church in a chest kept beneath the Communion Table, which can only be -opened by the keys held by the two Treasurers. The importance of the -patent is, for the purpose of our investigation, that it is based almost -certainly upon documents that have disappeared, but which reached back -to the original conveyance, and it shows that there were two separate -parcels, exacting two separate rents. Moreover, it provided that _each_ -Society should continue to pay a rental of £10. Now, if these two -Societies represented a division of the one parent body which had come -from Thavye’s Inn and held the _whole_ Inner and Middle Temple at a -rent of £10, it is hardly conceivable that when this supposed division -took place, each Society should have continued to pay the whole rent. -The first thing they would have divided, after dividing themselves, -would surely have been that rent of £10.[16] - -That the theory of a division having taken place early caused much -wonderment is shown by a report that was rife in the seventeenth -century. This ‘report’ was to the effect that the division arose from -the sides taken by the Lawyers in the Wars of the Roses. Those wars, -however, took place after the date when there is evidence of the -existence of the two Societies. The ‘report’ represents an attempt to -explain the existence of the two Societies when their origin was already -forgotten, and was perhaps suggested by the fact that it was in the -Temple Gardens that Shakespeare placed the famous incident that led to -the Wars of the Roses: - - ‘PLANTAGENET. Let him that is a true-born gentleman, - And stands upon the honour of his birth, - If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, - From off this briar pluck a white rose with me. - - ‘SOMERSET. Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer, - But dare maintain the party of the truth, - Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. - - ‘WARWICK. This brawl to-day, - Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden, - Shall send, between the red rose and the white, - A thousand souls to death and deadly night.’ - -In 1732, in order to put an end to many questions of property, an -elaborate deed of partition was agreed to by the two Inns, and forms the -final authority upon what belongs to each. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -THE TEMPLE CHURCH - - -It is natural to turn from this story of the Templars to the Round -Church in the Temple, which is their chief memorial. We leave the roar -and rattle of Fleet Street, and pass through the low Gateway of the -Inner Temple into the narrow lane which leads us between the gross -modern buildings, called after Oliver Goldsmith and Dr. Johnson, to the -west end of the Church--the west end, which is formed by the round -building which we have already mentioned. - -The Gate-House beneath which we have passed is in itself a building of -no ordinary interest. It is, as we now see it, a modern (1905) version -of an old timber and rough-cast house, with projecting upper stories, -pleasantly contrasting with the Palladian splendour of the adjoining -Bank. It was built ‘over and beside the gateway and the lane’ in 1610 by -one John Bennett, and was perhaps designed by Inigo Jones. The room on -the first floor was, there is every reason to suppose, used by the -Prince of Wales as his Council Chamber for the Duchy of Cornwall. It -contains some fine Jacobean and Georgian panelling, an admirable -eighteenth-century staircase, and an elaborate and beautiful Jacobean -plaster ceiling, with the initials, motto, and feathers of Prince Henry, -who died 1612. - -This is No. 17, Fleet Street. No. 16, to the west of it, with the sign -of the Pope’s Head, was the shop of Bernard Lintot, who published Pope’s -‘Homer,’ and later of Jacob Robinson, the bookseller and publisher, with -whom Edmund Burke lodged when ‘eating his dinners’ as a student of the -Middle Temple. - -The Gate-House escaped the Fire of London, and, having been restored, is -now preserved to the public use by the London County Council.[17] It -forms an appropriate introduction to those narrow lanes and quiet Courts -and that lovely Church, whose pavements once resounded with the tread of -the mail-clad champions of Christendom, and echo now with the softer -footfall of bewigged, begowned Limbs of the Law. Dull and prosaic must -he be indeed who cannot here feel the thrill of imagination which -stirred the soul of Tom Pinch as he wandered through these Courts: - -‘Every echo of his footsteps sounded to him like a sound from the old -walls and pavements, wanting language to relate the histories of the -dim, dismal rooms; to tell him what lost documents were decaying in -forgotten corners of the shut-up cellars, from whose lattices such -mouldy sighs came breathing forth as he went past; to whisper of dark -bins of rare old wine, bricked up in vaults among the old foundations of -the Halls; or mutter in a lower tone yet darker legends of the -cross-legged knights, whose marble effigies were in the Church’ (‘Martin -Chuzzlewit’). - -The Round part of the Church of the Knights Templars, which we now see -lying below us, is one of the very few instances of Norman work left in -London--the only instance, save the superb fragments of St. -Bartholomew’s Church and the splendid whole of the Tower of London. It -was dedicated, as we have seen, in 1185 to St. Mary by Heraclius, -Patriarch of Jerusalem. This fact was recorded on a stone over the door, -engraved in the time of Elizabeth, and said by Stow to be an - -[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH - -A ROUND CHURCH of the Order of Knights Templars (dedicated in 1185). The -oblong nave is seen through the pillars of polished Purbeck marble -(1240).] - -accurate copy of an older one. It also proclaimed an Indulgence of sixty -days to annual visitors, the earliest known example, I believe, of this -particular form of taxation. The Church was again dedicated in 1240. The -rectangular portion of the Church, the Eastern portion added to the -Western Round, was now probably reconstructed, supplanting a former -chancel or choir, just at the period when the new Pointed style had -ousted the round Norman. - -The circular type of church is not peculiar to the Order of Templars, as -we have seen, or even to the Christians, but the choice of it was due in -this case to the practice of imitating the architecture, as the -topography, of the Holy Places at Jerusalem. In England, Round Churches -occur at Ludlow and Cambridge (1101), built before the Knights of the -Temple were established. St. Sepulchre at Northampton is possibly a -Templar Church, but the Round Church at Little Maplestead in Essex -belongs to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and was built by the -Knights Hospitallers. - -The Temple Church escaped the Fire of London as by a miracle, for the -flames came as near as the Master’s House at the East End. It escaped -the fire of 1678, when the old Chapel[18] of St. Anne, once perhaps the -scene of the initiation of the Knights Templars, lying at the junction -of Round and Rectangle, was destroyed by gunpowder to save the church. -But it could not escape the destroying hands of the nineteenth-century -Goths. For here, between 1824 and 1840, the great Gothic Revivalists -indulged in one of their most ineffable and ineffaceable triumphs of -intemperate enthusiasm. The Round part of the Church was almost rebuilt, -and the old carvings were supplanted by inferior modern work. The -conical roof was added; the horrid battlements banished. The old marble -columns were removed and replaced by new ones, to obtain which the old -Purbeck quarries were reopened. This marble takes an extraordinarily -high polish, and presents a surface so clean and lustrous as to be -almost shocking in its contrast to our dingy London atmosphere, and -buildings begrimed with dirt and soot. - -The many brasses, which Camden praised, have disappeared; the rich -collection of tablets and monuments and inscribed gravestones that once -pleased the eye of Pepys, and formed a feast of heraldic ornament, has -been dispersed, and found sanctuary in the tiny Churchyard without, on -the north side of the Church, or in the Triforium. The floor of the -Church was, at the same time, wisely lowered to its original level, and -covered with a pavement of tiles designed after the pattern of the -remains of old ones found there, or in the Chapter House of Westminster. - -A continuous stone bench, or sedile, which runs round the base of the -walls was added at this period, together with the delightful arcade -above it, with grotesque and other heads in the spandrels. The wheel -window--a lovely thing--was uncovered and filled with stained glass, and -the windows in the circular aisle of the Round have since been filled by -Mr. Charles Winston with stained glass which is good, but the colour of -which it is absurd to compare, as Mr. Baylis does, with the blues and -rubies of the glass of the best period. It is to be hoped that the -remaining windows will not be filled with coloured glass, as Mr. -Baylis[19] suggests, for the interior of the Round is too dark already. - -The result of all this Gothic reconstruction is that, save for the old -rough stones in the exterior Round walls, and some of the ornate -semicircular arches, the Templars’ Church exists no more. The grandeur, -beauty, and historical interest of their building can be gathered now -from old engravings only; the monuments of many famous men, in judicial -robes and with shields rich in heraldry, a representative gallery of -unbroken centuries, which once crowded its floors, must be judged by -broken and scattered fragments. What we have is a reconstruction such as -the Restorers chose to give us--that is, a light and very pleasing Early -English interior, fitted into a Round Norman exterior, beneath the -remaining arcade of round arches and windows.[20] - -If the enthusiasm of the Restorers, however, led them to destroy so that -we can never forgive them for having taken from us original work for the -sake of indulging their own fancy, yet it is evident that there was -much for them legitimately to undo. There were plaster and stucco, and -dividing gallery and whitewashed ceiling, and all the usual horrors of -the eighteenth century, to be got rid of. The graves and monuments were -historically interesting, but they crowded the little church unbearably. -And at least the Restorers have given us beautiful work of their own, -and a seemly and beautiful sanctuary worthy of the place. - -The Round is entered by a western door--a massive oaken door superbly -hung upon enormous hinges, quite modern. It closes beneath a -semicircular arch enriched by deeply-recessed columns with foliated -capitals of the transitional Norman style, though all this work, like -the Gothic Porch which contains it, is modern restoration. The scene as -we enter the Church is one of striking singularity. Near at hand is the -arcaded sedile about the walls of the Round, and through six clustered -columns of great elegance, made of polished Purbeck marble, which -support the dome, we catch a glimpse of the polished marble columns in -the Choir, the lancet windows in the North and South walls, and the -three stained windows of the East End, beneath which the gilded Reredos -glitters. And through the painted windows of the Round itself the light -strikes upon a wonderful series of monumental recumbent figures, some of -which are made of this flashing Purbeck marble too. It is a strange, -unforgettable sight, that summons up unbidden the vision of the -Red-Cross Knights, to the tread of whose mailed feet these pavements -rang, when, beneath their baucéant banners, they gathered here to the -Dedication of their Temple. - -These monuments, though re-arranged and restored indeed by Richardson, -1840, are still of great interest. Nine only out of eleven formerly -mentioned remain. Two groups of four each lie beneath the Dome, with the -ninth close by the South wall, balancing a stone coffin near the North. -Two of them belong to the twelfth century and seven to the thirteenth, -and these silent figures wear the armour of that period--the chain mail -and long surcoats, the early goad spurs, the long shields and swords, -the belts, and mufflers of mail. - -The Monuments in the Temple Church have been frequently described, by -Stow and Weever, for instance, by Dugdale,[21] and by Gough.[22] The -tradition that they represent ‘ancient British Kings,’ or even -necessarily Templars, has been long exploded. The theory that every -figure whose legs are crossed in effigy belonged to that Order has been -consigned to the limbo of vulgar errors. But five of these effigies are -mentioned by Stow as being of armed Knights ‘lying cross-legged as men -vowed to the Holy Land, against the infidels and unbelieving Jews.’ And -it is very probable that cross-legs did indicate those who had either -undertaken a Crusade or vowed themselves to the Holy Land. At any rate, -I know no evidence to show that this was _not_ the symbolism by which -the medieval mason in England and Ireland chose to indicate the -Crusader. - -None of these remarkable monuments can with certainty be identified. Of -those now grouped upon the South side Stow says: ‘The first of the -crosse-legged was W. Marshall, the elder Earl of Pembroke, who died -1219; Wil. Marshall, his son, the second, and Gilbert Marshall, his -brother, also Earl of Pembroke, slayne in a tournament at Hertford, -besides Ware,’ in 1241. And this may or may not be so. The fourth is -nameless; the fifth, near the wall, is possibly that of Sir Robert -Rosse, who, according to Stow, was buried here. - -Of the group upon the North side, only that of the cross-legged knight -in a coat of mail and a round helmet flattened on top, whose head rests -on a cushion, and whose long, pointed shield is charged with an -escarbuncle on a diapered field, can with any probability be named. For -these are the arms of Mandeville (_de Magnavilla_)--‘quarterly, or and -gules, an escarbuncle, sable’--and this monument of Sussex marble gives -us the first example of arms upon a sepulchral figure in England.[23] It -is supposed to be the effigy of Geoffrey Mandeville, whom Stephen made -first Earl of Essex, and Matilda Constable of the Tower. A ferocious and -turbulent knight, he received an arrow-wound at last in an attack upon -Burwell Castle, and was carried off by the Templars to die. But, as he -died under sentence of excommunication, it is said that they hung his -body in a lead coffin upon a tree in the Old Temple Orchard, until -absolution had been obtained for him from the Pope. Then they brought -him to the new Temple and buried him there (1182). - -The Choir, or rectangular part of the Church, of which the nave is -broader than the aisles, but of the same height, is a beautiful example -of the Early English style, and is lighted by five lancet triplet -windows. By the Restorers the old panelling and the beautiful -seventeenth-century Reredos were removed. Tiers of deplorable pews, -deplorably arranged, and a very feeble Gothic Reredos[24] were -substituted. The roof, supported by the Purbeck marble clustered columns -that culminate in richly-moulded capitals, was painted with shields and -mottoes in painstaking imitation of the thirteenth century. The windows -at the East End were filled with very inferior modern stained glass, -none of it of the least interest, poor in colour and wretchedly ignorant -in design--ignorant, that is, of the rules which guided the art of the -medieval glazier. - -A bust of the ‘Judicious’ Hooker, Master of the Temple Church, and -author of the ‘Ecclesiastical Polity,’ the grave of Selden near the -South-West corner of the Choir, and above it a mural tablet to his -memory, are the monuments of known men most worthy of attention. The -fine fourteenth-century sepulchral effigy near the double piscina of -Purbeck marble is supposed to be that of Silvester de Everden, Bishop of -Carlisle. - -The Organ, frequently reconstructed and finally renewed by Forster and -Andrews, 1882, has been famous for generations. It was originally built -by Bernard Schmidt. Dr. Blow and Purcell, his pupil, played upon it in -competition with that built by Harris. The decision of this Battle of -the Organs was referred to the famous, or infamous, Lord Chief Justice -Jeffreys, who was a good musician, and in this matter, at least, seems -to have proved himself a good Judge. - -The _Triforium_[25] is reached by a small Norman door in the North-West -corner of the oblong. A winding staircase leads to the Penitential -Cell--4 feet long, by 2 feet 6 inches wide--where many of the Knights -were confined. To the Triforium many tablets and monuments (_e.g._, of -Plowden), once in the Church below, have been removed. - -Among the epitaphs in brass, quoted at length by Dugdale, is one in -memory of John White: - - ‘Here lieth a John, a burning, shining light; - His name, life, actions, were all White.’ - -The Templars’ Church was equally divided between the two Societies of -Lawyers from ‘East to West, the North Aisle to the Middle, the South - -[Illustration: THE EAST END OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH AND THE MASTER’S -HOUSE] - -to the Inner Temple.’ This fact, with many others, clearly indicates the -basis of perfect equality upon which the two Societies were agreed to -stand, and on which, in spite of subsequent claims to precedence on the -part of both, declared groundless by judicial authority, they will -henceforth continue. As to the Round, it appears to have been used by -both Societies in common, largely as a place of business, like the -Parvis of St. Paul’s, where lawyers congregated, and contracts were -concluded. Butler refers to this custom in his ‘Hudibras’: - - ‘Walk the Round with Knights o’ the Posts - About the cross-legged Knights, their hosts, - Or wait for customers between - The pillar rows in Lincoln’s Inn.’ - BUTLER: _Hudibras_. - -Joint property of the two Societies, also, is that exquisite example of -Georgian domestic architecture, the Master’s House (1764). This perfect -model of a Gentleman’s Town-House owes its great charm almost entirely -to its beautiful proportions, and to the appropriate material of good -red brick and stone of which it is built. It is a thousand pities that -blue slates have been allowed to supplant the good red tiles that should -form the roof. The House itself is the successor of one which was -erected (1700) after the Great Fire.[26] The original Lodge is said to -have been upon the site of the present Garden, directly in line with the -east end of the Church. In the vaults beneath this Garden many Benchers -of both Inns have been laid to rest. - -In this Lodge, then, dwells the Master of the Temple Church. - -‘There are certain buildings,’ says Camden, ‘on the east part of the -Churchyard, in part whereof he hath his lodgings, and the rest he -letteth out to students. His dyet he hath in either House, at the upper -end of the Bencher’s Table, except in the time of reading, it then being -the Reader’s place. Besides the Master, there is a Reader, who readeth -Divine Service each morning and evening, for which he hath his salary -from the Master.’ - -A Custos of the Church had been appointed by the Knights Hospitallers, -but after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the presentation of the -office was reserved to the Crown. The Church is not within the Bishop’s -jurisdiction. On appointment by the Crown, the Master is admitted -forthwith without any institution or induction. But the Master of the -Temple Church is Master of nothing else. When, in the reign of James -I., Dr. Micklethwaite laid claim to wider authority, the Benchers of -both Temples succeeded in proving to the Attorney-General that his -jurisdiction was confined to his Church. - -Masters of real eminence have been few. By far the greatest was the -learned Dr. John Hooker, appointed by Elizabeth, who resigned in 1591. -Dr. John Gauden, who claimed to have written the ‘Eikon Basilike,’ was -Master of the Temple before he became Bishop of Exeter and Worcester. -And in our own day Canon Ainger added to the charm of a singularly -attractive personality the accomplishments of a scholar who devoted much -of his time to the works of another devout lover of the Temple--Charles -Lamb. - -The Church was once connected with the Old Hall by Cloisters, -communicating with the Chapel of St. Thomas that once stood outside the -north door of it, and with the Refectory of the Priests, a room with -groined arches and corbels at the west end of the present Inner Temple -Hall, which still survives (see p. 48). Later on, Chambers were built -over the Cloisters, and the Church itself was almost stifled by the -shops and chambers that were allowed to cluster about it, along the -South Wall, and even over the Porch. Beneath the shelter of these -Cloisters the Students of the Law were wont to walk, in order to ‘bolt’ -or discuss points of law, whilst ‘all sorts of witnesses Plied in the -Temple under trees.’ - -The Fire of 1678 burnt down the old Cloisters and other buildings at the -south-west extremity of the Church. The present Cloisters at that angle, -designed by Wren, were rebuilt in 1681, as a Tablet proudly proclaims. - -The Cloister Court is completed by Lamb Building, which, though -apparently within the bounds of the Inner Temple, belongs (by purchase) -to the Middle Temple, and is named from the badge of that Inn, the Agnus -Dei, which figures over the characteristic entrance of this delightful -Jacobean building, and has now given its title to the whole Court. Here -lived that brilliant Oriental Scholar, Sir William Jones, sharing -chambers with the eccentric author of ‘Sandford and Merton,’ Thomas Day. -And it was to the attics of these buildings, where Pen and Warrington -dwelt, that Major Pendennis groped his way through the fog, piloted, as -he might be to-day, ‘by a civil personage with a badge and white apron -through some dark alleys and under various melancholy archways into -courts each more dismal than the other.’[27] - -The consecrated nature of their tenement resulted in certain -inconveniences to the Lawyers. On the one hand, the Temple was a place -of Sanctuary, and its character suffered accordingly. Debtors, -criminals, and dissolute persons flocked to it as a refuge, so that it -became necessary to issue orders of Council (1614) that the Inns should -be searched for strangers at regular intervals, whilst, with the vain -view of reserving the precincts for none but lawyers, it was ordained -that ‘no gentleman foreigner or discontinuer’ should lodge therein, so -that the Inns might not be converted into ‘taverns’ (_diversoria_). On -the other hand, the benevolence of the Benchers was taxed by many -unnatural or unfortunate parents, who used the Temple as a crèche, and -left their babies at its doors. The records give many instances of -payments made towards the support of such infants, who were frequently -given the ‘place-name’ of Temple. - -I have quoted from Thackeray a phrase not so over-complimentary to the -surroundings of Lamb Building. - -But now, before passing on to the story of the Halls of these renowned -Societies, and the Chambers which have harboured so many famous men, I -must quote, as an introduction, the passage in which the novelist makes -amends, and nobly sums up the spirit of the life men lead there, and the -atmosphere of strenuous work and literary tradition which lightens those -‘dismal courts’ and ‘bricky towers.’ - -‘Nevertheless, those venerable Inns which have the “Lamb and Flag” and -the “Winged Horse” for their ensigns have attractions for persons who -inhabit them, and a share of rough comforts and freedom, which men -always remember with pleasure. I don’t know whether the student of law -permits himself the refreshment of enthusiasm, or indulges in poetical -reminiscences as he passes by historical chambers, and says, “Yonder -Eldon lived; upon this site Coke mused upon Lyttelton; here Chitty -toiled; here Barnwell and Alderson joined in their famous labours; here -Byles composed his great work upon bills, and Smith compiled his -immortal leading cases; here Gustavus still toils with Solomon to aid -him.” But the man of letters can’t but love the place which has been -inhabited by so many of his brethren or peopled by their creations, as -real to us at this day as the authors whose children they were; and Sir -Roger de Coverley walking in the Temple Gardens, and discoursing with -Mr. Spectator about the beauties in hoops and patches who are sauntering -over the grass, is just as lively a figure to me as old Samuel Johnson -rolling through the fog with the Scotch Gentleman at his heels, on their -way to Dr. Goldsmith’s chambers in Brick Court, or Harry Fielding, with -inked ruffles and a wet towel round his head, dashing off articles at -midnight for the _Covent Garden Journal_, while the printer’s boy is -asleep in the passage.’[28] - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE MIDDLE TEMPLE - - -The passage I have quoted from Thackeray at the end of the last chapter -shadows forth eloquently enough something of the feeling of respect and -awe which the young barrister--and even those who are not young -barristers--may naturally feel for the precincts within which the great -English Lawyers lived and worked--the Inns of Court, where the splendid -fabric of English Law was gradually built up, ‘not without dust and -heat.’ - -But for most laymen the Temple and its sister Inns have other and -perhaps more obvious charms. For as we pass by unexpected avenues into -‘the magnificent ample squares and classic green recesses’ of the -Temple, they seem to be bathed in the rich afterglow of suns that have -set, the light which never was on sea or land, shed by the glorious -associations connected with some of the greatest names in English -literature. Here, we remember, by fond tradition Geoffrey Chaucer is -reputed to have lived. Here Oliver Goldsmith worked and died, and here -his mortal remains were laid to rest. Here, within hail of his beloved -Fleet Street, Dr. Johnson dwelt, and Blackstone wrote his famous -‘Commentaries.’ Here the gentle Elia was born. Hither possibly came -Shakespeare to superintend the production of ‘Twelfth Night.’ Here, in -the Inner Temple Hall, was acted the first English tragedy, ‘Gorboduc; -or Ferrex and Porrex,’ a bloodthirsty play, by Thomas Sackville, Lord -High Treasurer of England, and Thomas Norton, both members of the Inner -Temple. And hither, to witness these or other performances, came the -Virgin Queen. - -The main entrance to the Middle Temple is the gateway from Fleet Street, -scene of many a bonfire lit of yore by Inns of Court men on occasions of -public rejoicing.[29] This characteristic building, of red brick and -Portland stone, with a classical pediment, was designed by Sir -Christopher Wren, and built, as an inscription records, in 1684. An old -iron gas-lamp hangs above the arch, beneath the sign of the Middle -Temple Lamb. - -Wren’s noble gate-house replaced a Tudor building, erected, according to -tradition, by Sir Amias Paulet, who, being forbidden--so Cavendish[30] -tells the story--to leave London without license by Cardinal Wolsey, -‘lodged in this Gate-house, which he re-edified and sumptuously -beautified on the outside with the Cardinal’s Arms, Hat, Cognisance, -Badges, and other devices, in a glorious manner,’ to appease him. The -fact seems to be that this old Gateway was built in the ordinary way -when one Sir Amisius Pawlett was Treasurer.[31] - -Adjoining this Gateway is Child’s Bank, where King Charles himself once -banked, and Nell Gwynne and Prince Rupert, whose jewels were disposed of -in a lottery by the firm. Part of this building covers the site of the -famous Devil’s Tavern, which boasted the sign of St. Dunstan--patron of -the Church so near at hand--tweaking the devil’s nose. Here Ben Jonson -drank the floods of Canary that inspired his plays; hither to the sanded -floor of the Apollo club-room came those boon companions of his who -desired to be ‘sealed of the tribe of Ben,’ and here, in after-years, -Dr. Johnson loved to foregather, and Swift with Addison, Steele with -Bickerstaff. - -Immediately within the Gateway, on the left, is - -[Illustration: THE MIDDLE TEMPLE GATEHOUSE IN FLEET STREET - -IT stands on the south side close to the site of Temple Bar, was -designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and built in 1684.] - -an old and very picturesque stationer’s shop, belonging to the firm of -Abram and Sons, in whose family it has been since 1774. It is much more -than a stationer’s shop, for Messrs. Abram have accumulated in the -course of years a very valuable and interesting collection of old deeds -and documents and prints. The overhanging stories of the house rest upon -a row of slender iron pillars--pillars which Dr. Johnson used to touch -with superstitious reverence each time he passed, in unconscious -continuation of that ancient pillar-worship of which many traces linger, -for those who have eyes to see, about the Temple and St. Paul’s. We are -now in Middle Temple Lane, the narrow street down which the citizens of -London were wont to hurry in order to take boat to Westminster from the -Temple Stairs, in the days when the River was the highway between the -City and the Court, between London and Westminster, the counting-houses -of the merchants and the palace and abbey of the King. Of late years the -introduction of tramways and of motor traffic on the Embankment has -tended largely to revive the popularity of the old route, though not all -the thousands of pounds squandered by the London County Council upon an -ill-considered scheme of steamboats could induce the Londoner to adopt -again the water-way, which the bend of the River and the tide must make -slow. Next below us on the left is the group of chambers called Hare -Court, a plain to ugly, red-brick to stock-brick barracks, through which -one can reach the Temple Church. Beyond, on the right, we come to what -remains of Brick Court. This is a most charming specimen of the Queen -Anne style. An inscription over the doorway of No. 3, _Phœnicis -instar revivisco_, informs us that it rose like the Phœnix from its -ashes in 1704. But in this present year of Grace (1909), an old brick -building has been removed, which fronted the Hall and the Lane, and -which claimed to be the oldest building left in the Temple, the first -constructed of brick, erected there in Elizabeth’s reign, and referred -to by Spenser in the lines of his ‘Prothalamion’:-- - - ‘Those bricky towres, - The which on Themmes brode aged backe doe ryde, - Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers, - There whylome wont the Templar Knights to byde, - Till they decayed thro’ pride.’ - -There is nothing, however, to prove that Spenser was referring to Brick -Court. The ‘Prothalamion’ was published in 1596; and I would suggest -that the phrase ‘bricky towres’ might apply most naturally to the Middle -Temple Hall. - -Of all the Chambers in the Inns of Court rich in reminiscences of famous -men, none are so redolent of literary fame as No. 2, Brick Court. We -cannot, as Thackeray[32] wrote, who himself, like Winthrop Mackworth -Praed, had chambers here, pass without emotion ‘the staircase which -Johnson, Burke, and Reynolds trod to see their friend, their kind -Goldsmith--the stair on which the poor women sat weeping bitterly when -they heard that the greatest and most generous of all men was dead -within the black oak door.’ - -Not the Temple, but No. 6, Wine Office Court, nearly opposite the -Cheshire Cheese, was the scene of Dr. Johnson’s famous rescue of the -author of ‘The Vicar of Wakefield,’ who had been arrested by his -landlady for his rent, and sent for his friend in great distress. ‘I -sent him a guinea,’ says Johnson, ‘and promised to come to him -directly.... I perceived that he had already changed my guinea, and had -a bottle of Madeira and a glass before him. I put the cork into the -bottle, desired he would be calm, and began to talk to him of the means -by which he might be extricated. He then told me that he had a novel -ready for the press. I looked into it, and saw its merit; told the -landlady I should soon return, and, having gone to a bookseller, sold it -for sixty pounds.’ - -Goldsmith left Wine Office Court and lodged for a while in Gray’s Inn, -and thence migrated to some humble Chambers upon the site of No. 2, -Garden Court, Middle Temple (1764). These buildings have disappeared. -But the success of his play, ‘The Good-Natured Man,’ for which he -received £500, enabled him to launch forth into more splendid -apartments. He purchased the lease of No. 2, Brick Court, which still -stands as he left it, for £400. He furnished his rooms with mahogany and -Wilton carpets, and, bedecking himself in a suit of ‘Tyrian bloom satin -grain,’ prepared to entertain his most aristocratic acquaintances. -Johnson, Percy, Reynolds, Bickerstaff, and a host of other friends of -either sex, climbed those stairs to the rooms on the second floor on the -right-hand side (‘two pair right’), were entertained to dinners and -suppers, much to the discomposure of the studious Blackstone, who, -painfully compiling his great ‘Commentaries’ in the chambers below, -found good cause to grumble at the racket made by ‘his revelling -neighbour.’[33] And some years later the staircase that led to the rooms -of that most lovable of geniuses was crowded by friends, ‘mourners of -all ranks and conditions of life, conspicuous among them being the -outcasts of both sexes, who loved and wept for him because of the -goodness he had done.’[34] For from these rooms, one April afternoon, -the mortal remains of Oliver Goldsmith were borne forth, to be buried -somewhere on the north side of the Temple Church. The exact spot is not -known, but as near to it as can be ascertained a plain gravestone now -bears the inscription (1860): ‘Here lies Oliver Goldsmith.’ The -Goldsmith Buildings, that run parallel to the north side of the Church, -belong, like Lamb Buildings, somewhat unexpectedly to the Middle Temple, -but they have no immediate connection with Oliver Goldsmith. - -The bedroom in Goldsmith’s Chambers Thackeray describes as a mere -closet, but he commented upon the excellence of the carved woodwork in -the rooms. The windows looked upon a rookery, which for long flourished -in the elm-trees, since cut down, which gave their name to Elm Court. -Gazing upon this colony, Goldsmith, in the intervals of composing his -‘Traveller’ or ‘Deserted Village,’ would note their ways, and so -recorded them in his ‘Animated Nature’:[35] ‘The rook builds in the -neighbourhood of man, and sometimes makes choice of groves in the very -midst of cities for the place of its retreat and security. In these it -establishes a kind of legal constitution, by which all intruders are -excluded from coming to live among them, and none suffered to build but -acknowledged natives of the place. I have often amused myself with -observing their plan of policy from my window in the Temple, that looks -upon a grove where they have made a colony in the midst of the City....’ - -In recent years many of the brightest ornaments of the English Bar have -had Chambers in Brick Court, including Lord Coleridge, Lord Bowen, Lord -Russell, and Sir William Anson. There is a sundial in this Court--one of -the many for which the Inn is famous--from which Goldsmith may often -have taken the hour. It warns us that Time and Tide tarry for no man, -and took the place (1704) of one that bore the motto, ‘Begone about your -business,’ of which the story goes that it was a Bencher’s curt -dismissal of a Mason who asked him for the motto to be engraved thereon. - -The Buildings in the Inns grew up in haphazard fashion. They were -erected by individual members or Benchers at their own cost, and -interspersed with stalls and shops, with the sanction of the Benchers. -The builders were granted the right of calling their blocks of chambers -after their own names, if they chose, and of nominating a certain number -of successors from among members of the Society, who might become -tenants without paying rent to the Inn. - -To this haphazard method of building, and to the influence of numerous -fires, is due the devious labyrinth of little Courts, the inextricable -maze of blocks of Chambers, which lie upon our left as we descend Middle -Temple Lane, and which lend so peculiar a character to the Temple Inns. -Pump Court, Elm Court, Fig-Tree Court, which fill the spaces between the -Lane and Wren’s Cloisters and the Inner Temple Hall, owe their irregular -shape to these causes, and their titles to the chief features of the -plots about which they were built. - -First comes Pump Court, where Henry Fielding, the novelist, and Cowper, -the poet, once had chambers. Upon its old brick walls is a sundial with -its warning motto: ‘Shadows we are, and like shadows depart.’[36] The -great fire of 1679, which damaged the Middle Temple far more than the -Fire of London, broke out at midnight in Pump Court. It raged for twelve -hours. The Thames was frozen, and barrels of ale, so tradition runs, -were broached to feed the pumping engines in lieu of water. Pump Court, -Elm-Tree Court, Vine Court, the Cloisters, and part of Brick Court were -consumed. The Church and Middle Temple Hall were only saved by the -timely use of gunpowder, a device that had been found effective in the -Great Fire of 1666. - -Elm Court Buildings, as they now are, date from 1880. They are built of -good red brick and stone, but marred by feeble Renaissance ornament. -They boast a sundial, facing the Lane, which proclaims that the years -pass and are reckoned--_pereunt et imputantur_. The Middle Temple Lane -ends in the atrocities of the nineteenth century: between the walls of -the feeble Harcourt Buildings, the stock-brick ugliness of Plowden -Buildings, which have rather less architectural charm than a -soap-factory, and in the dreadful Temple Gardens and the Gateway which -opens upon the Embankment, a gross abomination of florid ugliness. - -On the right, below Brick Court, beneath a gas-lamp raised upon a -graceful iron arch, some steps - -[Illustration: FOUNTAIN COURT AND MIDDLE TEMPLE HALL] - -lead us to a raised pavement, dotted with a few plane-trees, beyond -which lies the Fountain. This pavement is the forecourt of the Middle -Temple Hall, a building which, in spite of restorations and recasings -and counter-restorations, remains of unique and unsurpassed interest. -For now that Crosby Hall is to be translated, it is the only building -left _in situ_ in London which can be directly and certainly connected -with William Shakespeare. The Middle Temples had an ancient Hall between -Pump Court and Elm Court, the west end of which abutted upon Middle -Temple Lane. This was superseded in 1572 by the present famous building. - - ‘Gray’s Inn for walks, - Lincoln’s Inn for a wall, - The Inner Temple for a garden, - And the Middle for a Hall.’ - -The old doggerel lines fairly sum up the features of the Inns. And this -lovely Hall of the Middle Temple, whose proportions are so fair--it is -100 feet by 42 feet by 47 feet high--produces a delightful impression of -space and lightness. A magnificent timber roof with Elizabethan -hammer-beams harmonizes with the rich panelling, on which are painted -the arms of ‘Readers,’ and the gorgeous carving of the Renaissance -Screen, which was erected in 1574, some fourteen years before the date -of the Spanish Armada, from the spoils of which fond tradition says it -was constructed. - -The Hall is very rich in heraldry, and has some interesting portraits, -chiefly of royal personages. Above the Bench Table hangs Van Dyck’s -portrait of Charles I. The windows illustrate the survival of Gothic -detail long after other details had passed into the Italian style. The -points are very slight, but contrast sharply enough with the Renaissance -curves and pendent roof. There is some modern stained glass, tolerable -in colour, but incongruous in style. - -Parliament Chamber and the Benchers’ rooms are approached through old -carved oak doors, relics of the old Hall in Pump Court. - -The Entrance Tower was designed by Savage (1831): the Louvre was -restored by Hakewill. An oil-painting, attributed to Hogarth, of the -Hall Court, with the Entrance Tower of the Hall in its ancient state, is -to be seen in the Benchers’ Committee Room of the Inner Temple. - -One of the most splendid Refectories in England, comparable to the Hall -of Christ Church at Oxford, this noble room adds to the charm of its -beauty the charm of a literary memorial. For from this stage the -exquisite poetry and gentle fun of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ first -fell upon the ears of the listening lawyers upon occasion of a Christmas -Revel three hundred years ago. Here Shakespeare himself, we must -believe, has trodden; those rafters rang once with the poet’s voice. For -even if he did not act himself in his play that night of wonderful -Post-Revels--and that, in spite of tradition, is indeed scarcely -probable, for the dramas performed on these occasions were, as we have -seen, acted by members of the Inn--yet it is more than probable that he -would be employed as Stage-Manager for the occasion, and would take his -natural part in rehearsing the play. - -It so happens that one John Manningham--a fellow-student, by the way, of -John Pym--kept a diary of his residence in the Temple from 1601 to 1603. -That diary has been preserved among the Harleian Manuscripts now in the -British Museum. And on February, 160½, he made a note which will cause -his name to live for ever. ‘At our feast,’ he wrote, ‘Wee had a play -called “Twelve Night, or What you will,” much like the “Commedy of -Errores,” or “Menechmi” in Plautus, but most like and neere to that in -Italian called “Inganni.”[37] - -And to this stately Hall, we may be sure, came Elizabeth, surrounded by -a brilliant group of statesmen, lawyers, sailors, to witness such plays, -or perchance to lead the dance with some comely courtier like Sir -Christopher Hatton. The connection of the Middle Temple with the great -Elizabethan Admirals and Adventurers is indeed noteworthy. - -Sir Francis Drake was honourably received by the Benchers in this Hall -after his victories in the West Indies (1586), and in the Hall, below -the daïs, is a serving-table made out of the timber of his ship, the -_Golden Hind_. He had been admitted, _honoris causa_, to the Society of -the Inner Temple four years earlier. Other famous Elizabethan seamen -were admitted at the Middle Temple in the persons of Sir Martin -Frobisher, Admiral Norris, Sir Francis Vere (all in 1592), and Sir John -Hawkins (1594). Taken in conjunction with the fact that Richard Hakluyt, -the elder, was a Bencher of the Middle Temple; that Sir Walter Raleigh, -who had been admitted to membership of the Inn in 1575, placed the -expedition he sent out in 1602 under the command of Bartholomew Gosnold, -another Middle Templar; that the records show that several members of -the Middle Temple were interested in the early development of Virginia; -and that the Inn possesses the only existing copy of the ‘Molyneux -Globes,’ this and other indications seem to justify Mr. Bedwell’s -contention[38] that ‘the colonizing enterprises of the closing years of -the sixteenth century were closely associated with the Middle Temple,’ -and that on both sides of the Atlantic members of that Inn took a -prominent part in the ‘birth of the American Nation.’ - -This connection with the Colonies, natural, necessary and profitable -both to those new countries, which thus obtained the services of -educated men--Governors trained in knowledge of affairs, and -Attorney-Generals imbued with the high traditions of English Law--and to -the Inns themselves, which were thus kept in touch with the New World, -is illustrated by the fact that the Middle Temple is represented by no -less than five of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence. Of -these, Thomas McKean is said to have written the Constitution of -Delaware in a single night. And of the other four, Edward Rutledge, -Thomas Lynch, Thomas Heyward, and Arthur Midleton--all Representatives -of South Carolina--the first is believed to have drafted the greater -part of the Constitution of that State, and was afterwards Chairman of -the Committee of Five who drafted the first Constitution of the United -States. - -Meanwhile the literary and dramatic tradition of the Middle Temple was -continued by such members of the Society as Congreve, Wycherley, Ford, -Sir Thomas Overbury, and Shadwell, King William’s Poet Laureate, who -lives in Dryden’s Satire. Later, that tradition was continued by -Sheridan, Thomas Moore, Thomas de Quincey, and Henry Hallam, the -historian of the Middle Ages. - -Since 1688, when a change was made in the oath of supremacy, which, by a -statute of 1563, all Utter Barristers were required to take, the names -of the members of the Inns of Court who are entitled to practise in the -Courts have been preserved in the Barristers’ Roll. Since 1868 -barristers have been excused the oath, but the Roll must still be signed -after call to the Bar. The lists are kept in the Public Record Office. - -The names of eminence inscribed upon this wonderful Roll can only be -hinted at here. The Middle Temple can boast such great lawyers as Edmund -Plowden and Blackstone, and Lord Chancellors in Clarendon, Jeffreys (who -was a student here, but called to the Bar at the Inner Temple), Somers, -Cowper, and Eldon; whilst Mansfield, C.J., Lord Ashburton, Robert -Gifford, Lord Stowell, Lord Campbell, Cockburn, the Norths, and the -Pollocks, were men and lawyers of no less eminence. Nor must we omit to -mention one whose undying fame was earned, not in the Courts, but in the -Camp; for Sir Henry Havelock, the hero of Cawnpore and Lucknow, figured -among the Templars ere he went to India. Of another kind of eminence was -Elias Ashmole, the Antiquary, whose name lives at Oxford. In the -destructive fire of 1678 he lost in his rooms at the Middle Temple his -papers, books, and rich collection of coins and medals. His friend, John -Evelyn, the diarist, also had rooms in the Middle Temple, in Essex -Court, just over against the Hall Court (1640). - -The north wing of Essex Court, which forms part of Brick Court, was -rebuilt in 1883;[39] the remainder of these charming brick buildings, -with the Wigmaker’s shop, belong to the second half of the seventeenth -century. - -Though the Gateway which leads to Middle Temple Lane is the grander, -there is another entrance by ‘the little Gate,’ which is still more -charming and characteristic. Screened by the tortuous ways of Devereux -Court, an old wrought-iron gate opens onto an ancient and spacious -quadrangle. - -As we stand beneath the old brick buildings of this ‘New Court’--so -‘new’ that it was built by Sir Christopher Wren (1677)--the whole charm -of the Temple scenery unfolds before our eyes, and we understand at once -the ‘cheerful, liberal look of it’ which Charles Lamb loved. - -For below us lies the most unique and one of the loveliest views in -London, a city of beautiful vistas. A flight of steps, framed by ancient -iron standards bearing the sign of the Lamb, leads down to a Fountain in -the centre of a broad paved terrace. And through the trees that shade it -we catch glimpses of green lawns and flower-beds hedged about by Hall -and Library and Chambers. Here still, beneath the shady trees--though -Goldsmith’s rooks no longer caw in them--sparkles the water of the -Temple Fountain, though the Fountain itself is not that which provoked -Lamb’s wit, nor that which Dickens loved. It was through the smoky -shrubs of Fountain Court that the delicate figure of Ruth Pinch flitted, -in fulfilment of her little plot of assignation with Tom, who was always -to come out of the Temple past the Fountain and look for her ‘down the -steps leading into Garden Court,’ to be greeted ‘with the best little -laugh upon her face that ever played in opposition to the Fountain, and -beat it all to nothing. The Temple Fountain might have leaped twenty -feet to greet the spring of hopeful maidenhood that in her person stole -on, sparkling, through the dry and dusty channels of the Law; the -chirping sparrows, bred in Temple chinks and crannies, might have held -their peace to listen to imaginary skylarks, as so fresh a little -creature passed; the dingy boughs, unused to droop, otherwise than in -their puny growth, might have bent down in a kindred gracefulness, to -shed their benedictions on her graceful head; old love letters, shut up -in iron boxes in the neighbouring offices, and made of no account among -the heaps of family papers into which they had strayed, and of which, in -their degeneracy, they formed a part, might have stirred and fluttered -with a moment’s recollection of their ancient tenderness, as she went -lightly by.’[40] - -From the Fountain Terrace we look down upon a terraced garden framed by -various blocks of buildings, which, if they do not group and harmonize -so as to form a perfect whole, yet produce an effect which is quite -singular and has a charm of its own. Beneath the Terrace, on the left -the west end of the Hall abuts upon a green lawn; on the right a flight -of steps leads down to a path which skirts the not unpleasing gabled -façade, in red brick and stone, of the Garden Court (1883). Facing us -now, are the steps which lead up to the embattled Lobby of the Library, -beneath which an archway leads to the Library Chambers facing Milford -Lane. Hence a private gate leads out into the Lane, where are the steps -to Essex Street, remains of the old Water Gate of Essex House. The -left-hand side of the green parallelogram of garden is formed by those -ugly Plowden Buildings, for which the only hope is that they may soon be -buried in the decent obscurity of Virginia Creeper, which can cover a -multitude of architectural sins, and the still uglier Temple Gardens, -and the Gateway, for which there is no hope at all. - -In Dugdale’s time the Middle Temple Library, owing to the fact that it -always stood open, had been completely despoiled of books. The present - -[Illustration: MIDDLE TEMPLE LIBRARY - -ON the left are the buttresses of Middle Temple Hall.] - -building, in the Gothic style by H. R. Abraham, is ugly in itself, its -proportions, especially when viewed from the Embankment, being painfully -bad. Its height is far too great for its length and breadth, and this is -due to the fact that two stories of offices and chambers are beneath the -Library Room, which is approached by a charming outside staircase. The -Library itself, which is 86 feet long, is a beautiful room with a fine -open hammer-beam roof. It was opened on October 31, 1861, by King Edward -VII., then Prince of Wales, who was called to the Bar and admitted as a -Bencher of the Middle Temple on the same day. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -THE INNER TEMPLE - - -Mr. Loftie very justly observes of the Middle Temple that ‘Its Lawn -seems wider, its trees are higher, its Hall is older, its Courts are -quainter, than those of the other member of this inseparable pair.’ The -Middle Temple has, indeed, been unkindly compared to a beautiful woman -with a plain husband. This comparison, however, is far from just. For -though its beauty is perhaps less obvious and has been much impaired by -the ravages of modern builders, yet the Inner Temple remains a _locus -classicus_ for the fine beauty of the Jacobean and Queen Anne styles, -and across its green lawn the view of the Embankment, the River, and -Surrey Hills--too often, alas! shrouded in smoke--is extremely -delightful. Moreover, the heart of the Inner Temple presents the -engaging completeness of a Collegiate Building. The Church and Master’s -House on the North; the Cloisters on the West; the Buttery, -Refectories, Hall, and Library on the South; the Master’s Garden, the -Graveyard and Garden of the Inn on the East, form just such a Court or -Quadrangle as delights the eye at Oxford or Cambridge. - -I have spoken of the Inner Temple Gateway. In King’s Bench Walk--once -known as Benchers’ Walk--the Inner Temple can boast a row of typical -Jacobean mansions, with handsome doorways,[41] which look upon a broad -and classic avenue of trees. Nor can an Inn, which records the names of -Sir Edward Coke and of John Selden amongst its members, and which was -the home of Dr. Johnson and Charles Lamb, be reckoned inferior to any in -the fame and interest of its _alumni_. - -Dr. Johnson moved from Staple Inn to Gray’s Inn, and from Gray’s Inn to -No. 1, Inner Temple Lane (1760). Here, in a spot so favourable for -retirement and meditation, as Boswell calls it, in a house whose site is -indicated by the ugly block of Johnson’s Buildings (1851), were those -rooms which have been so vividly described by the great man’s admirers. -Here, in two garrets over his chambers, his library was stored, ‘good -books, but very dusty and in great confusion.’ Here was housed an -apparatus for the chemical experiments in which he delighted, whilst the -floor was strewn with his manuscripts for Boswell to scan ‘with a degree -of veneration, supposing they might perhaps contain portions of the -“Rambler” or of “Rasselas.”’ It was in his chambers here on the first -floor, furnished like an old counting-house, that the uncouth genius -received Madame de Boufflers--received her, no doubt, clad, as usual, in -a rusty brown suit, discoloured with snuff, an old black wig too small -for his head, his shirt collar and sleeves unbuttoned, his black worsted -stockings slipping down to his feet, which were thrust into a pair of -unbuckled shoes. And then, when he began to talk, ‘with all the -correctness of a second edition,’ all thought of his slovenly appearance -and his uncouth gestures vanished; the knowledge and the racy wit of the -man triumphed. We see the lady, fascinated by the great man’s -conversation, bowed out of those dirty old rooms, whilst the ponderous -scholar rolls back to his books. Then her escort hears ‘all at once a -noise like thunder.’ It has occurred to Johnson that he ought to have -done the honours of his literary residence to a foreign lady of -quality. - -Eager to show himself a man of gallantry, he hurries down the stairs in -violent agitation. ‘He overtook us,’ says Beauclerc, ‘before we reached -the Temple Gate, and, brushing in between me and Madame de Boufflers, -seized her hand and conducted her to the coach.’ To the bottom of Inner -Temple Lane came the devoted Boswell, and took chambers in Farrar’s -Buildings--now rebuilt (1876)--in order to be near to the object of his -biographical enthusiasm. Another name famous in Literature the Inner -Temple can boast. Francis Beaumont, the dramatist, was a Member of this -Inn, and in 1612 he wrote the Masques performed by this Inn and Gray’s -Inn before King James at Whitehall, in honour of the marriage of -Princess Elizabeth and the Count Palatine of the Rhine. This Masque he -dedicated to Sir Francis Bacon, who represented Gray’s Inn in its -preparation. - -The grey walls of Paper Buildings; the plain yellow brick of Crown -Office Row; the stock-brick of Mitre Court, the Goldsmith Buildings that -have supplanted the dingy attic of No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, which -looked through the trees upon the (now vanished) pump in Hare Court, are -none of them buildings which in themselves can stir any emotion but -repulsion, but they have a lasting charm and interest, for they are the -sites of the homes of Elia; they are haunted by the ‘old familiar faces’ -of Charles Lamb and his friends. - -Charles Lamb first saw the light in No. 2, Crown Office Row, ‘right -opposite the stately stream which washes the garden-foot,’ and there -passed the first seven years of his life. ‘Its church, its halls, its -gardens, its fountain, its river, I had almost said, for in those young -years what was this king of rivers to me but a stream that watered our -pleasant places?--these are of my earliest recollections.’ - -The name of these buildings was derived naturally enough, because, at -least from the days of Henry VII., the Clerk of the Crown occupied the -Crown Office in this Inn until its removal to the Courts of Justice in -1882. The eastern yellow brick half of the row, Nos. 1, 2, and 3, was -built in 1737, the western half, Nos. 4, 5, and 6, of stone in the -Italian style, in 1864, by Sydney Smirke. The Row no longer extends to -No. 10, where Thackeray had chambers, sharing them possibly with Tom -Taylor, before he migrated to No. 2, Brick Court. - -Of his old Chambers here Taylor wrote with affectionate regret when he -heard of the ‘bringing low of those old chambers, dear old friend, at -Ten, Crown Office Row.’ - - ‘They were fusty, they were musty, they were grimy, dull, and dim, - The paint scaled off the panelling, the stairs were all untrim; - The flooring creaked, the windows gaped, the doorposts stood awry, - The wind whipt round the corner with a wild and wailing cry. - In a dingier set of chambers no man need wish to stow, - Than those, old friend, wherein we denned at Ten, Crown Office Row.’ - -The present Mitre Court Buildings date from 1830. At No. 16, in the old -block, Charles Lamb once lived (1800), preferring ‘the attic story for -the air.’ ‘Bring your glass,’ he writes to a friend, ‘and I will show -you the Surrey Hills. My bed faces the river, so as by perking upon my -haunches and supporting my carcass upon my elbows, without much wrying -my neck, I can see the white sails glide by the bottom of King’s Bench -Walk, as I lie in my bed.’ In Fuller’s Rents, now replaced by Nos. 1 and -2, Mitre Court Buildings, the Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth’s favourite, -and Sir Edward Coke, the great Chief Justice, once had chambers (1588 -_ff._).[42] - -Coke was a Bencher before he became Chief Justice and wrote upon -Lyttleton. Sir Thomas Lyttleton (author of the famous ‘Treatise on -Tenures’) is the first name upon the list of the Benchers of the Inner -Temple. - -A heavy iron gate, shut at night, marks the entry to Mitre Court and -what was formerly Ram Alley. Between the North side of Mitre Court -Buildings and the entrance to Serjeants’ Inn are the remains of a small -garden, marked by a few sickly trees. Beyond, is a passage leading into -Serjeants’ Inn, which is approached by a flight of steps, and is shut -off from Mitre Court by a door, which at the present day is seldom, if -ever, closed. Through this private way of his, the lines of which can -still be traced, the compact and wiry figure of the great Lord Chief -Justice, Coke, might often have been seen passing between the two -Inns.[43] - -From 1809 to 1817 Charles Lamb lived at No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, a -house that has been replaced by part of the ugly Johnson’s Buildings. -‘It looks out,’ he says, ‘upon a gloomy churchyard-like Court, called -Hare Court, with three trees and a pump in it. I was born near it, and -used to drink at that pump, when I was a Rechabite of six years old.’ - -‘That goodly pile of building strong, albeit of Paper hight,’ as Lamb -facetiously calls it, succeeded Heyward’s Buildings, where Selden -laboured. Paper Buildings were burnt down in 1838, thanks to the -carelessness of Sir John Maule, the eccentric Judge, who left a candle -burning by his bedside. Both he and Campbell, afterwards Chancellor, -lost everything in the flames. - -In Paper Buildings George Canning, the Statesman, and Samuel Rogers, the -poet, had chambers, and Lord Ellenborough also (No. 6). The present -block, by Smirke, contains the chambers of another Prime Minister in Mr. -Asquith. The Inner Temple can boast yet another Premier in George -Grenville, who became Prime Minister (1763) in the same year as he was -elected Bencher. - -The name of Edward Thurlow, the rough-tongued, overbearing Lord -Chancellor, is unhappily connected, like that of Grenville, with the -policy which resulted in the loss of our American Colonies. - -Thurlow had chambers in Fig-Tree Court, the smallest and most dismal of -these legal warrens in the Temple. He died in 1806, and was buried in -the Temple Church. - -Amongst other great lawyers who had chambers in Paper Buildings, Stephen -Lushington, Edward Hall Alderson, and Sir Frank Lockwood must be named. - -Paper Buildings form the Western boundary of the ‘Great Garden,’ which, -indeed, before the erection of buildings here, used to extend to King’s -Bench Walk. It stretched from Whitefriars to Harcourt Buildings and -Middle Temple Lane, and from the Hall to the river wall, and if it has -been narrowed by Paper Buildings, it has been elongated by the -successive embankments of the River. Always carefully cultivated and -planted with shrubs and roses, it remains, little altered by the passing -centuries, one of the sweetest and most grateful of things--a trim -garden in the midst of a grimy town. This is the scene chosen for that -great and growing Flower Show, which is one of the most popular and -pleasing of the social functions of the London season. The great -wrought-iron gate opposite Crown Office Row is a magnificent specimen of -eighteenth-century craftsmanship. It will be noticed that it bears, in -addition to the winged Horse, the arms of - -[Illustration: HALL AND LIBRARY, INNER TEMPLE - -CROWN OFFICE ROW is on the left, Paper Buildings on the right. The -Gardens run right down to the Thames Embankment, and are the scene of -the Temple Flower Show.] - -Gray’s Inn--a compliment to the ancient ally of this Inn, which was -returned upon the gateway of Gray’s Inn Gardens, and over the arch of -the Gatehouse leading to Gray’s Inn Road. It was upon the neighbouring -terrace that the Old Benchers, of whom Lamb wrote so pleasingly, used to -pace. Immediately within the railings is a sundial, which dates from the -beginning of the eighteenth century. Of these ‘garden gods of Christian -gardens, these primitive clocks, the horologes of the first world, there -is a delightful profusion in the Temple. Best known of all of them, -perhaps, is that which is borne by a kneeling black figure in a corner -of the garden near the foot of King’s Bench Walk. It was brought here -from Clement’s Inn. The oft-quoted epigram, which was one day found -attached to this Blackamoor, is feeble enough: - - ‘In vain, poor sable son of woe, - Thou seek’st the tender tear; - From thee in vain with pangs they flow, - For mercy dwells not here. - From cannibals thou fled’st in vain; - Lawyers less quarter give-- - The first won’t eat you till you’re slain, - The last will do’t alive.’ - -Occasionally as I pass these many sundials, shrouded in the yellow haze -of London fog, or scarce visible through the murk upon the dark walls -of narrow Courts, I find myself repeating Edward Fitzgerald’s mot, when, -after a wet week spent with James Spedding at Mirehouse, he gazed -reflectively upon the sundial in the garden there, and observed: ‘It -_must_ have an easy time of it.’ - -Fires, frequent and disastrous, have destroyed nearly all the old -buildings in the Inner Temple. Only the Church and a fragment of the -Hall survive from medieval days. The Great Fire (1666), which left the -Middle Temple almost unscathed, wrought devastation in the Inner. The -Inn was then rebuilt with great rapidity, the erection of Chambers being -left to the enterprise of Members, as before, whilst the Society as a -whole devoted itself to the construction of the Library and Moot-Chamber -beneath. In the fire of 1678 the old Library was blown up with gunpowder -in order to save the Hall. - -The present Inner Temple Hall is a crude, pseudo-Gothic structure, which -was designed by Sydney Smirke, and was opened by the Princess Louise in -1870. It supplanted the restored and tinkered remains of the old Hall. -For the ancient Refectory of the Knights Templars stood in the time of -Henry VII. on the same site as this Hall, and does, indeed, form the -nucleus of it.[44] The Clock Tower, at the East end of the Library, -which forms one side of the nondescript Tanfield Court, perpetuates an -ancient tower, which was surmounted by a turret built of chalk, rubble, -and ragstone, like the Church, and carried a bell under a wooden cupola. -It stood near to this spot, and was attached to the Treasurer’s house. -The feeble architecture of the exterior is agreeably at variance with -the fine interior of the Hall, with its open timber roof and handsome -screen. Upon the panelled walls, like those of the Middle Temple Hall, -are painted the coats of arms of past Treasurers and Readers, in -perpetuation, as it were, of the old custom of the Knights Templars, who -used to hang their shields upon the walls when they sat two by two at -dinner in the old Hall, wherein, as the Accusers averred, the Novices of -the Order were compelled to spit upon the Cross, to kiss an Idol with a -black face and shining eyes, and to worship the Golden Head kept in the -Treasury adjoining. The doors in the panelling at the East End lead now -to nothing more thrilling than Parliament Chambers--‘a handsome set of -rooms, the walls of which are covered with portraits and engravings of -legal luminaries.’[45] - -In the minstrel gallery hang some old drums and banners, which serve to -remind us of the martial achievements of the Lawyers, when ‘forth they -ride a-colonelling.’ Two very richly carved doors at the north and south -entrances to the Hall, one of which bears the date 1575, are reasonably -supposed to be surviving fragments of the great carved screen, said by -Dugdale to have been erected in the Hall in 1574. - -The four fine bronze statues of Knights Templars and Knights -Hospitallers are by H. H. Armstead (1875). The Hall is rich in -portraits. Beneath a large painting of Pegasus are portraits of King -William III. and Queen Mary, of Queen Anne, George II., and Queen -Caroline. Portraits of Sir Edward Coke and Sir Thomas Lyttleton, Sir -Matthew Hale, Sir Randolph Carew, and Sir Simon Harcourt, among others, -hang upon the walls. - -The old Hall of this, as of the other Inns, was frequently the scene of -Revels and Merry-making.[46] Here, as elsewhere, Christmas Feasts -formed prominent incidents in the life of the Society, and one such has -been described by Gerard Leigh (1576), when the guests were served ‘with -tender meats, sweet fruits and dainty delicates confectioned with other -curious cookery ... and at every course the Trumpeters blew the -courageous blast of deadly War, with noise of drum and fyfe; with the -sweet harmony of Violins, Sackbutts, Recorders and Cornetts, with other -instruments of music, as it seemed Apollo’s harp had tuned their stroke. -Thus the Hall was served after the most antient of the Island.’ And it -was in the old Hall of the Inner Temple that the first performance of -the first English tragedy took place in 1561. This was ‘Gorboduc; or -Ferrex and Porrex,’ and it was written by two distinguished members of -this Society: Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville. A hundred years later -Sir Heneage Finch, afterwards Lord Chancellor and Earl of Nottingham, -‘the Oracle of Impartial Justice,’ gave in this Hall the most -magnificent ‘Reader’s Feast’ upon record. - -King Charles came in his barge from Whitehall, with his Court, and was -received at the Stairs by the Reader and the Lord Chief Justice in his -scarlet robes. He passed into the Temple Garden through rows of Readers’ -servants, clad in scarlet cloaks and white Tabba doubtlets, and the -Gentlemen of the Society in their gowns, whilst music and violins -sounded a welcome to His Majesty. The Duke of York was also present upon -this occasion, and so delighted was he with the entertainment that he, -together with Prince Rupert, was at once admitted to the Society, and -presently became a Bencher. - -Sir Heneage Finch was the most famous of a long line of distinguished -members of that family who have been Benchers. It is characteristic of -the Inner Temple that it has and always has had a tendency for members -of the same families to supply the vacancies among the Benchers. The -Pollocks, Wests, Wards, and Finches point back to a long roll of -ancestors distinguished in the Law and the annals of the Temple. This -tendency coincides with the aristocratic nature of the Society. For many -centuries a candidate for Bencher was required to show at least three -generations of ‘gentle blood,’ a regulation which affords a curious -contrast to the more democratic nature of Oxford and Cambridge. In -Elizabeth’s reign it was ordered that ‘none should be admitted of the -Society, except he were of good parentage and not of ill-behaviour.’ -Such another Inner Temple family was that of the Hares, who lived for -generations in Hare Court, the south side of which was built by Nicholas -Hare about 1570. Hare Court, together with the rooms once occupied by -Chief Justice Jeffreys, has been recently rebuilt. A doubtful portrait -of that ferocious Judge by Sir Peter Lely was presented to the Inn by -Sir Harry Poland, K.C. - -The exterior of the Library Building is not imposing. It contains on the -ground and first floors the Parliament Chambers, offices, and -lecture-rooms, and on the second floor a very fine library, admirably -arranged in a room perfectly suited to the student. - -Very early indications of a Library existing with chambers under it are -found in the records. It stood at the west end of the Hall. A later -building, apparently, at the east end of the Hall was afterwards used as -the Library, and was rebuilt in 1680, after having been destroyed by -gunpowder in 1678 in order to save the Hall from the fire in that year. - -The north wing, upon the site of No. 2, Tanfield Court, was opened in -1882. A case containing a collection of ‘Serjeants’ Rings’ is of some -interest. In the anteroom to the Parliament Chambers hangs a portrait of -William Petyt, a former Treasurer of the House and Keeper of the Records -at the Tower, who bequeathed his exceedingly valuable collection of -historical documents, etc., to the Inn. A fine piece of carving by -Grinling Gibbons, as it is supposed, which is placed in this anteroom -also, bears the inscription ‘T. Thoma Walker Arm. A.D. 1705,’ and was -the result of a payment of £20 5s. made by Sylvester Petyt, Principal of -Barnard’s Inn and brother of William, as executor of the latter’s -will.[47] - -The narrow alley that leads from Fleet Street through Mitre Court and -Mitre Buildings, gives little promise of the broad open expanse of -gravel - -[Illustration: NO. 5, KING’S BENCH WALK, INNER TEMPLE - -A DOORWAY, probably by Sir Christopher Wren.] - -walks, sparsely dotted with plane-trees, and narrowing down to a distant -glimpse of gardens, and of the River beyond, to which it guides our -feet. - -This stretch of gravel walks is enclosed on the west by Paper Buildings -and on the east by the buildings of the King’s Bench Walk. The lower -half of the latter, below the gateway leading into Temple Lane, and -facing the Gardens, dates from 1780, and is quite devoid of -architectural merit or even any pretence to it; but the northern section -is composed of houses of rare excellence. The fine proportions, the -appropriate material, the handsome doorways of these houses, and the -graceful iron lamp-brackets in front of them (Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6), all -proclaim the influence of a great master in a good period. The doorways -of Nos. 4 and 5 are, indeed, with every probability, attributed to Sir -Christopher Wren, whose genius was largely employed in the re-building -of the Temple. For the Fire of London reached the Temple two days after -it broke out, and almost completely destroyed all the buildings east of -the Church, King’s Bench Walk included. The houses then were quickly -rebuilt, but, as an inscription on a tablet on No. 4 records, only to be -burnt down again in 1677. No. 4 was rebuilt in 1678, No. 5 in 1684. - -In No. 1, James Scarlett, Lord Abinger, had chambers; at No. 5, William -Murray, Lord Mansfield, of whom Colley Cibber, parodying the lines of -Pope, wrote: - - ‘Persuasion tips his tongue whene’er he talks, - And he has chambers in the King’s Bench Walks.’ - -Another famous lawyer who had rooms here was Frederick Thesiger, Lord -Chelmsford. The most remarkable of the cases tried by him is said to -have formed the basis of Samuel Warren’s ‘Ten Thousand a Year,’ a novel -whose title we most of us know now better than its contents. The author -of this popular novel, with its legal satire of Quirk, Gammon, and Snap, -was written at No. 12, King’s Bench Walk, in what Warren calls ‘this -green old solitude, pleasantly recalling long past scenes of the -bustling professional life’;--though how King’s Bench Walk can be called -a solitude, or why a solitude should recall the bustling professional -life, deponent sayeth not. Warren was treasurer in 1868. A painting, -attributed to Hogarth, of King’s Bench Walk in 1734, hangs in the -Benchers’ Committee Room, together with a painting of Fountain Court, -also attributed to him. At No. 3 lived Goldsmith in 1765. - -And now, since we have drifted again from law to poetry, mention must be -made of two other poets whose names are connected with the Inner Temple. -About the year 1755 William Cowper left his lodging in the Middle -Temple, and took Chambers in the Inner, remaining there till his removal -to the Asylum ten years later. That was nearly three hundred years after -the Father of English poetry is said to have lived here. For, if we -could believe the life of Chaucer prefixed to the Black Letter Folio of -1598, both he and Gower, the poet, were members of the Inner Temple. -‘For not many years since Master Buckley did see a record in the same -house, where Geoffrey Chaucer was fined two shillings for beating a -Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street.’ Master Buckley was Chief Butler of -the Inner Temple (1564), and as such performed the functions of -Librarian. He may, therefore, quite well have seen a record to this -effect. But there is no reason to identify this Chaucer with the poet. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -LINCOLN’S INN AND THE DEVIL’S OWN - - -It was probably the removal of the Knights Templars to the New Temple -that gave rise to the construction of New Street. Some thoroughfare -connecting their old property in Holborn with their new premises and the -river was necessary to their convenience and their trade. Thus, probably -through their instrumentality, New Street, or, as we now call it, -Chancery Lane, came into existence, and, connecting two of the main -arteries leading from the western suburbs into the City, and cutting -through the very heart of the area occupied by the Inns of Court, it -soon developed into what Leigh Hunt described as ‘the greatest legal -thoroughfare in England.’[48] Chancery Lane, or Chancellor’s Lane, as -the name appears in its earlier form, is said to have been called after -a Bishop of Chichester, who was Chancellor of England at the end of the -thirteenth century. A house and garden, near the southern end of -Chancery Lane, was, we know, the town residence of the Bishops of -Chichester. Here dwelt St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester (1245-1253), -‘in true possession thereof in right of his Church of Chichester.’ The -name of Chichester Rents perpetuated the memory of this episcopal -habitation. Possession of this town residence of the Bishops of -Chichester was finally acquired by the lawyers about the middle of the -sixteenth century. A few years later (1580) they obtained the freehold -of the open space known as Coney Garth, or Cotterell’s Garden. But it is -not at all clear how the Society of Lincoln’s Inn came into occupation -of these premises, or how its name had come to be attached to property -properly belonging to the See of Chichester and St. Giles’s Hospital. In -the absence of any other obvious explanation, we must look back for the -origin of the Society of Lincoln’s Inn to a group of lawyers housed in -an Inn belonging to the Earl of Lincoln, and must try to account for -their presence on their present property by the theory of a migration -from their first hostel. This theory fortunately presents no difficulty, -and it is supported by various facts and indications. - -The parent house of Lincoln’s Inn would appear to be the Inn of the -great Justiciar Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, which stood to the -south-east of St. Andrew’s Church. It was natural and necessary for the -great Administrators of the Law to gather about their Courts a following -of trained lawyers to help them to enunciate the theory, and to perform -the business thereof. As the followers of Le Scrope, the great Justice -of King’s Bench, settled in Scrope’s Inn, and the followers of De Grey, -the Justiciar of Chester, in Grey’s Inn, so about the residence of the -great Justice Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, in his Manor of Holborn, -congregated the forerunners of the Society of Lincoln’s Inn, students of -law and practisers in the Justiciar’s Court. - -The hostel of the Earl of Lincoln stood at the north end of Shoe Lane, -near Holeburn Bridge. The buildings were erected upon the ruins of the -Monastery of the Blackfriars. The Blackfriars had settled themselves in -Holborn, west of the north end of Chancery Lane, and gradually amassed -property that reached down to the house of the Bishops of Chichester. -But presently they followed the example of the Knights Templars, and -moved nearer the River to the site of what is still called Blackfriars, -just within the City Wall. Their Holborn property they sold a few years -later (1286) to the Earl of Lincoln, who undertook to pay 550 marks, in -instalments, to the Friars, ‘for all their place, buildings and -habitation near Holeborn.’[49] - -Now, of Henry, Earl of Lincoln, tradition says that he developed his new -estate by cultivating the gardens and orchards upon it, and that he made -large sums by selling the fruit grown there. But it was, no doubt, to -the labours of the former monkish owners, the preceding Blackfriars, -that the gardens and orchards of the Earl of Lincoln owed their so rich -and wonderful harvests. - -Lincoln, it is said, had so great a love for Lawyers that his house was -filled with students of the Law. He had already arranged, according to -this tradition, to transfer his house to them entirely, when, in 1311, -he died. Such, according to Dugdale, was the story current ‘among the -antients here.’ This tradition represents the fact that the Justiciar -gathered about him a nucleus of men conversant with the Law, who should -be capable of transacting the business of his Court, and who would -naturally make it part of their business to train others to their -trade. Equally naturally such Lawyers of Lincoln’s Inn would, in -accordance with the almost invariable custom of medieval times, form -themselves into a Guild, the Society of Lincoln’s Inn. It is probable, -then, that the students ‘apt and eager,’ whom the Earl had gathered -about him, formed themselves into the very Society which still exists, -though it has changed its habitation. That change did not take place -immediately after the Earl of Lincoln’s death. Through Lincoln’s -daughter and heiress, Alesia, all his property passed to Thomas, Earl of -Lancaster. The great quantities of wax and parchment recorded, among his -household expenses,[50] as used in his Hostel at Shoe Lane, would seem -to indicate that the legal business was still carried on here in 1314. -Before entering upon the inheritance of Alesia, the Earl of Lancaster -had already acquired the property of the Knights Templars, which -included not only the New Temple, but also nearly the whole of the -western side of New Street or Chancery Lane. Upon the attainder of the -Earl of Lancaster in 1321, all his property, including Lincoln’s Inn in -Shoe Lane, became the escheat of the King. This was subsequently -restored to Alesia, who was known as Countess of Lincoln. - -The business of the Law had by this time become centred round Chancery -Lane, and the Society of Old Lincoln’s Inn may well have deemed it -desirable to migrate southwards. In such case it would be natural to -find them settling upon a site which was likewise part of the property -of the Earldom afterwards the Duchy, of Lancaster. - -Once in full possession of their property, the Lawyers turned with great -energy to the business of building. They began to enclose their domain -with lofty brick walls. The great Gateway, a Hall, a Library, and a -Chapel were begun in the reign of Henry VII. The material chosen was the -native red brick of London, so admirably suited to the Town, and the -style adopted was that Tudor treatment of brick so admirably suited to -the material. The Lawyers were guided in their choice, no doubt, by the -possession of a Brick-field in the Coney Garth (= Searle’s Court, now -New Square). - -One of the chief features of Lincoln’s Inn is the Tudor Gateway, which -forms the main entrance into Chancery Lane. The liberality of Sir Thomas -Lovell, one of the Benchers of the Society, and Treasurer of the -Household of Henry VII., was chiefly responsible for its erection. This -magnificent Gatehouse, with its flanking Towers of brick, built in 1518, -whilst Wolsey was Chancellor, narrowly escaped destruction, in obedience -to the imperious will of Lord Grimthorpe and his Gothic followers. - -Fortunately it has survived, and, with the exception of the magnificent -Gatehouses of Lambeth Palace and St. James’s Palace, remains almost -alone as a specimen of this period of architecture in London, when the -Gothic was yielding place to the Palladian style. - -The walls of the massive tower, four stories high, are striped with -diagonal lines of darker brick. The entrance, under an obtusely-pointed -arch, was originally vaulted. The groining has disappeared, but the -front still bears, in a heraldic compartment over the arch, the arms of -Henry VIII. within the Garter, and crowned, having on the dexter side -the purple lion of Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, and on the sinister the arms -and quarterings of Sir Thomas Lovell. - -The bricks of which this Gatehouse and the outer wall of Lincoln’s Inn -are built have an interest beyond their colour and their age. For upon -the task of laying them ‘Rare Ben Jonson’ - -[Illustration: OLD SQUARE, LINCOLN’S INN - -SHOWING the interior side of the gateway, built in 1518. Ben Jonson -worked as a bricklayer on this gatehouse.] - -is said to have laboured, trowel in hand and book in pocket. Aubrey, in -his ‘Lives,’ records that Ben Jonson worked some time with his -father-in-law, a bricklayer, ‘and particularly on the garden wall of -Lincoln’s Inne, next to Chancery Lane.... A bencher, walking thro’ and -hearing him repeat some Greeke verses out of Homer, and finding him to -have a wit extraordinary, gave him some exhibition to maintain him at -Trinity College in Cambridge.’ This is only a tradition, though a very -likely one; and, as Leigh Hunt says, tradition is valuable when it helps -to make such a flower grow out of an old wall. - -Within the Gatehouse a small Quadrangle is formed by the Chapel, Old -Library, and the two wings of Old Buildings. Octagonal turret-staircases -fill the corners of these brick buildings, and in the turret at the -South-East corner lived Thurloe, who was Secretary of State to Oliver -Cromwell. A tablet in Chancery Lane, on the outer face of the building, -records this fact, whilst the Treasurership of William Pitt in 1794 is -apparently thought so little worthy of memorial that the sundial which -once commemorated it has been allowed to disappear.[51] A portrait by -Gainsborough of that great Statesman hangs in the Benchers’ Room. -Tradition has it that Oliver Cromwell once had chambers in Lincoln’s -Inn, an idea which probably sprang from the fact that Richard Cromwell -was a student here in 1647. - -The brick buildings forming this Court within the Gatehouse were -constructed during James’s reign, and it was then decided to build ‘a -fair large chapel, with three double chambers under the same,’[52] in -place of the one then standing, which had grown ruinous, and was no -longer large enough for the Society. This older chapel, which did not -stand on precisely the same site, was dedicated to St. Richard of -Chichester. The new chapel was raised on arches, which form in -themselves a tiny cloister, and produce a pleasing and unexpected effect -amid these dusty purlieus of the Law. - -The Chapel of Lincoln’s Inn, which was designed, according to Dugdale, -by Inigo Jones, in his Gothic manner, and in which Dr. Donne, the witty -prelate and great poet, preached the first sermon on Ascension Day, -1623, suffered even more than the Church of the Templars at the hands of -the destructive Gothic Revivalists. The Chapel was needlessly enlarged. -The buttresses were stuccoed. The beautiful proportions, which Inigo -Jones, like all the truly great architects, knew how to impart to his -buildings, were wantonly and inexcusably destroyed. - -John Donne had entered as a law student at Lincoln’s Inn, and, after -taking Orders, he was appointed preacher to the Inn. Before this, when -Secretary to Lord Keeper Egerton, he had been secretly married to Anne, -Lady Egerton’s niece. Ruin stared him in the face when, on discovery of -the marriage, he was dismissed. With a characteristic ‘conceit’ he ‘sent -a sad letter to his wife,’ as Walton[53] says, ‘and signed it John -Donne, Anne Done, Un-done.’ - -Having taken Orders at the instance of King James, he was soon -afterwards ‘importuned by the grave Benchers of Lincoln’s Inn, who were -once the companions and friends of his youth, to accept of their -lecture.’ Before he finally left the Inn to be Dean of St. Paul’s, he -laid the foundation-stone of the new Chapel, and at the consecration -ceremony, 1623, Ascension Day, he preached a sermon on the text, ‘And it -was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.’ So -great was the throng of listeners that ‘two or three were endangered -and taken up dead for the time with the extreme press.’ But Donne, great -preacher as he was, lives, not by his sermons, but by his poems and by -the Life with which the pen of Izaak Walton conferred immortality upon -him. - -Like the Master of the Temple, the Chaplain of Lincoln’s Inn presides -over the Chapel and attends in Hall during term-time. A Preachership was -instituted in 1581, and the office has been filled by such men as -Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta and hymnologist, and Thomson, -Archbishop of York. Amongst earlier Preachers may be mentioned Herring -(1726), afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Warburton (1746), -Bishop of Gloucester, who founded the Warburton Lectures on Religion, -which are annually delivered in the Chapel. - -The old coloured glass, representing Old Testament figures and the -Twelve Apostles, made by Hall, of Fetter Lane, but probably designed by -the Flemish artist, Bernard van Linge, is very good. It is contemporary -with the original building, and was paid for by subscribers, who -included in their number Noy, the Attorney-General, and Southampton and -Pembroke, the friends of Shakespeare. - -In the Vaults lie Prynne, whose grave is unmarked, and the youthful -daughter of the great Lord Brougham (1839), the only woman ever buried -here. Lord Wellesley composed a Latin epitaph to grace her tomb. It has -no great merit as a composition. - -The Old Hall stands at right angles to the Chapel. Older than the -Gatehouse itself, it has been quite ruined by frequent alterations, -restorations, and by hideous plastering. It was stuccoed by Bernasconi -about the year 1800. ‘The Loover or Lanthorn,’ according to the Records -of the Society, was ‘set up in the sixth of Edward VI.’ - -That the same customs obtained in Lincoln’s Inn as in the other Inns, -and were celebrated in this Hall, is indicated by an order of the -Society during the reign of Henry VIII., that the ‘King of Cockneys on -Childermass Day should sit and have due service; and that he and all his -officers should use honest manner and good order, without any waste or -destruction making, in wine, brawn, chely, or other vitails ... and that -Jack Straw and all his adherents should be banisht and no more be used -in this House.’ - -It was in this Hall that the Lord Chancellor used to sit and hold his -Court, under a picture by Hogarth of ‘S. Paul before Felix’ (1750), -before the new Law Courts were built. - -Adjoining the Hall, on the South side, was the Library. The building is -now let out in chambers. This Library was founded by John Nethersale, a -member of the Society, who bequeathed forty marks to be spent on the -building and on Masses for the repose of his soul (1497). Ever since, it -has been increased, and, passing from Old Square to Stone Buildings, and -from Stone Buildings to its present noble home, has grown in wealth and -usefulness. - -Many of the volumes still retain the iron rings attached to their -covers, by which, in old times, books in a Library were chained to the -desks--as may be seen in the College and University Libraries at Oxford -and Cambridge. The Library was further enriched by Sir Matthew Hale, -Chief Justice, 1671, who bequeathed his MSS. to it. - -In 1787 the Library was moved to Stone Buildings, and finally to a noble -building adjoining the New Hall, which Hardwick had just erected. The -fair proportions of this building were unfortunately ruined by Sir -Gilbert Scott, who, backed by Lord Grimthorpe, altered them to 130 feet -by 40 feet. This new Library and the magnificent Hall adjoining - -[Illustration: THE NEW GATEWAY AND HALL OF LINCOLN’S INN - -THE Hall was built in 1843, and opened by Queen Victoria on the occasion -when Prince Albert was created a Bencher.] - -it were erected in 1843 on the west side of that garden, where Ben -Jonson is said to have laboured; and thus, whilst the southern half of -the view into Lincoln’s Inn Fields was sacrificed by the Society, a -beautiful site, amidst broad green stretches of lawns, shady trees, and -flower-beds, was secured for their new blocks. Moreover, the Benchers -took great and praiseworthy pains[54] to procure a good design, which -should harmonize with the existing buildings ‘in the style of the -sixteenth century, before the admixture of Italian architecture.’[55] -The result of much deliberation and delay was a singularly successful -design by Philip Hardwick, the architect who built the classical -portions of Euston Station. Nobly proportioned, constructed of striped -brick in the Tudor fashion, with stone dressings, so as to harmonize -fitly with the Gatehouse opposite, and decorated with six bays, a -projecting window at the north end, and a great south window, fine in -detail and fine in its proportions, Lincoln’s Inn Hall is a building as -distinguished as it is surprising, when we remember that it is a product -of the year 1843. - -This Hall was opened with great ceremony by Queen Victoria, and upon -that occasion Prince Albert was created a Bencher of the Inn. Within, as -without, the Hall is superb; the proportions and the materials are -excellent. The roof is elaborately carved, and ornamented with colour -and gilt. The windows are rich in stained glass; the royal arms figure -in the centre of the beautiful south window, the others are filled with -old glass. In some directions, it must be confessed, the decoration is a -trifle overdone, especially the heraldic decoration. The arms of the -Inn, fifteen _fers de moline_ on a blue ground, with the shield of Lacy -‘or, a lion rampant purpure,’ are repeated with bewildering frequency in -every material. - -Above the daïs is the great fresco ‘School of Legislation’ (1852). G. F. -Watts had proposed to paint the larger hall of Euston Station, gratis, -with a series of frescoes illustrating the ‘Progress of Cosmos.’ The -Directors of the London and North-Western Railway fought shy of so -unbusinesslike a proposal. Nor can it be said that they were not in some -degree wise, for London atmosphere is by no means suitable for -fresco-work. The work of art, which the Directors rejected, took shape -upon the north wall of the Hall of Lincoln’s Inn. For the Benchers -accepted a similar offer from Watts, and that generous-minded artist -adorned their Hall with the greatest of English fresco-decorations: -‘Justice, a Hemicycle of Law-givers,’ a group of legislators from Moses -to Edward I. The painting has suffered sadly from the acids of the -smoke-laden compost known as London air. - -The Benchers’ rooms, delightful sanctums that remind one of Oxford -Common-rooms, contain some very fine portraits of distinguished members -of the Inn: Chief Justice Rayner, by Soest; Pitt, by Gainsborough; Lord -Erskine, by Sir Thomas Lawrence; and later portraits by Cope, Sargent, -Watts and others, of Lord Davey, Lord Russell of Killowen, Sir Frank -Lockwood, Lord Macnaghten, etc. The men famous in Law, in Letters, and -in Politics, who have been members of Lincoln’s Inn, are too numerous to -mention. Of lawyers, besides Lord Brougham, there are Murray, Lord -Mansfield, Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Bathurst, and Lord Campbell. -Canning, Perceval, Disraeli, Gladstone, Daniel O’Connell, William Penn, -and William Prynne stand out among the makers of history who have been -members of this Inn; whilst, among men of Letters, the George Colmans -(father and son), Horace Walpole, Charles Kingsley, and George Wither, -are amongst the most prominent, though the latter produced his -best-known poem in the Marshalsea Prison. And another shade, one may -fancy, haunts the green fields of Lincoln’s Inn and the busy, muddy -thoroughfare of Chancery Lane: it is that of Sir Thomas More, who passed -from Oxford and New Inn to enter at Lincoln’s Inn in 1496, and was -presently appointed Reader at Furnival’s Inn. Here, in the intervals of -his political career, he made a very large income at the Bar. - -The south end of the Hall faces the garden, which is enclosed by the old -houses of New Square. The fig-tree and the vine, like some stray -survivals from the monkish vineyard, flourish against the soot-blackened -bricks at the corner of these old houses, which, in pleasing calm and -quiet dignity, surround the well-kept lawn and flower-beds. An empty -basin in the centre of this garden marks the spot which was once adorned -by a sun-dial and fountain, said to have been designed by Inigo Jones. -By Inigo Jones were certainly designed the noble houses on the western -side of the great green expanse of Lincoln’s Inn Fields--houses with -‘Palladian walls, Venetian doors, grotesque roofs, and stucco floors.’ I -believe some of these houses contain beautiful work in the ceilings, -mantelpieces, etc. - -The whole Square, indeed, was ‘intended to have been built all in the -same style and taste, but, unfortunately, not finished agreeable to the -design of that great architect, because the inhabitants had not taste -enough to be of the same mind, or to unite their sentiments for the -public ornament and reputation’ (Herbert). - -Just as the Templars rented a field adjoining their buildings which they -used for tilting, so, beyond the houses of Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, -and the Bishop of Chichester, lay a meadow, and beyond it again the -Common, still known as Lincoln’s Inn Fields. - -Before 1602 there were no buildings on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn, -and, so late as the reign of Henry VIII., so rural were the surroundings -that rabbits abounded there, and had, indeed, to be preserved from the -sporting proclivities of the students. - -In Great Turnstile and Little Turnstile we have the names of narrow -lanes which still recall the days when Lincoln’s Inn Fields were fields -indeed, and the Turnstiles gave access to a path which ran under the -boundary wall of the Inn, and formed a short cut to the Strand.[56] The -enclosing of the Fields with buildings caused much heart-burning among -the Benchers and Students of Lincoln’s Inn, and in 1641 the Society -presented a petition to Parliament, complaining of the great increase of -buildings in their neighbourhood, and ‘the loss of fresh air which the -petitioners formerly enjoyed.’ But Parliament turned a deaf ear to the -stifling Lawyers, and the building went on unchecked. A century later -Gay, in his ‘Trivia,’ recounted the dangers of the neighbourhood: - - ‘Where Lincoln’s Inn’s wide space is railed around, - Cross not with venturous step; there oft is found - The lurking thief; who while the daylight shone, - Made the wall echo with his begging tone: - That crutch which late compassion moved, shall wound - Thy bleeding head, and fell thee to the ground.’ - -No. 13, Lincoln’s Inn Fields is one of the most fascinating, as it is -one of the richest, of the smaller museums that I know. It is the house -of an architectural and artistic genius, filled with the treasures he -collected, amidst which he loved to live and work. It is preserved for -us as he left it. For this is the home which Sir John Soane built for -himself, and in which he died, at the age of eighty-three, in 1837, -bequeathing his house and treasures to be preserved as a trust for the -Public, and more especially for Amateurs and Students in Painting, -Sculpture, and Architecture. - -Sir John Soane started life as an office boy at Reading; he was the -Architect of the Bank of England and the Dulwich Galleries; he -surrounded himself with a school of young architects, and for their -instruction and his own delight ransacked Europe for treasures of art, -both antiques and of his own day. The scope of this Collection is as -striking as its very high level of excellence. Chippendale furniture, -French fifteenth-century glass, a noble architectural library, and many -historical curios--these are the least of the lovely things he has given -to us. Beautiful bronzes and Greek and Etruscan vases are balanced by -the work of Wedgwood and Flaxman; superb illuminated manuscripts by the -exquisite Mercury of Giovanni di Bologna, and curious ancient gems, upon -one of which a head is cut so cunningly that whichever way you turn its -gaze follows you. We pass from the marvellous alabaster tomb of Seti I., -King of Egypt about 1370 B.C., and Greek and Roman sculptured marbles, -to a room in which first editions of ‘Paradise Lost’ and ‘Robinson -Crusoe’ confront Tasso’s manuscript, Reynolds’ sketch-book, and the -folios of Shakespeare’s plays which Boswell possessed. And yet we have -taken no account of the pictures--of Sir Joshua Reynolds’ ‘Snake in the -Grass,’ of Canaletto’s ‘Venice’ and Turner’s ‘Van Tromp’s Barge,’ of -Watteau’s ‘Les Noces,’ of Raffael’s Cartoons--of a score of pictures and -portraits by first-rate artists; and yet there remains that wonderful -little room, which is lined by the masterpieces of Hogarth--‘The -Election Scenes’ and the ‘Rake’s Progress.’ It is a wonderful place, -this London, in which such a treasure-house can lie, unnoticed and -almost unvisited, in the centre of an old square in the City. - -It is somewhat outside the scope of this book to deal with the dwellers -in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, but mention may be made of Thomas Campbell, the -poet, who had chambers at No. 61, whilst No. 58 was the House of -Forster, the biographer of Dickens, which is described in ‘Bleak House’: -‘Formerly a house of State ... in these shrunken fragments of its -greatness lawyers lie, like maggots in nuts.’ - -More fascinating than all is that ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ which still -survives upon a tiny triangular plot amidst the ruin of tenements that -have been lately razed to the ground. It proclaims itself the house -immortalized by Dickens, and may very well have been the shop which -suggested to him the scene of his ‘Old Curiosity Shop.’ It is an ancient -building--an old red-tiled cottage, possibly as old as those superb -houses of Inigo Jones, ornamented with the Rose of England and the -Fleur-de-Lys of France, on the west side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which -were put up a year before Charles laid his head upon the block in -Whitehall. - -A legend, however, says that it is of later date, a relic of a dairy -once belonging to that famous Louise Renée de Perrincourt de -Queronaille, favourite of Charles II., who was created by him Duchess of -Portsmouth. Portsmouth House stood opposite, and was believed to have -been purchased by the Duchess from the proceeds of a ship and cargo -presented to her by King Charles. But whether this was so or not, and -whether the little shop in question is the actual begetter of Dickens’s -vision, we cannot say with certainty. We need at least say nothing to -discourage the belief which guides the feet of the lover of Dickens to -Portsmouth Street, there to purchase souvenirs and conjure up the vision -of the dark little shop, with its low ceiling and odd, unexpected -corners, once more littered with knick-knacks and second-hand furniture -in all stages of breakage and decay, and little Nell and her tender old -grandfather sitting there again in the candlelight.[57] - -It remains to mention the Northern wing of Lincoln’s Inn, the -rectangular Court which lines Chancery Lane on the one side and faces -the green sward of the Garden on the other. ‘The Terrace walk,’ says -Herbert (p. 301) truly enough, ‘forms an uncommonly fine promenade ... -and the gardens themselves, adorned with a number of fine, stately -trees, receive a sort of consequence from the grandeur of the adjoining -pile.’ This is Stone Building, and is the outcome of a design to rebuild -the whole Inn in 1780 in the Palladian style. The design was not carried -out, and even this section of the undertaking remained incomplete for -sixty years. Even now much of the building is of brown brick. In 1845 -Hardwick, who was then carrying out his fine Gothic design for the Hall, -completed the façade commenced by Sir Robert Taylor. The fine Corinthian -pilasters of freestone, the simple pediments, and the chaste greys and -pearly whites of the plain stone, thrown into strong relief by the -soot-blackened portions of the building where it is not exposed to the -cleansing effect of wind and rain, render this nobly-proportioned - -[Illustration: STONE BUILDINGS, LINCOLN’S INN, FROM THE GARDENS - -COMMENCED in 1780 as part of a great scheme of rebuilding the whole Inn -in the Palladian style. The illustration shows the so-called ‘Pitt’ -sundial.] - -Court delightful to the eye, and, contrasting with the warm reds of the -other buildings in Lincoln’s Inn, convince one, if one needs convincing, -that red-brick and Portland stone are the only materials suitable for -London architecture. - -In the Eastern wing of Stone Buildings is the Drill Hall of the Inns of -Court Volunteers, and here are preserved various memorials of the many -Volunteer Associations which have been connected with the Inns of Court. - -So far back as the time of the Spanish Armada an armed force was raised -amongst the barristers and officers of the Inns for the defence of the -country. - -A copy of the original deed of this association of lawyers to resist the -threatened invasion (1584), relating to Lincoln’s Inn, hangs in the -Drill Hall. The original is still in possession of the Earl of -Ellesmere, whose ancestor, Thomas Egerton, then Solicitor-General and -afterwards Chancellor, was the first to sign it. - -Upon the arrest of the Five Members in 1642, five hundred warlike -Lawyers marched down to Westminster to express their determination to -protect their Sovereign, Charles I. - -Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles, who from the beginning of -his reign had always encouraged the Benchers and Students to exercise -themselves in arms and horsemanship, granted a commission to Edward, -Lord Lyttleton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, to raise a regiment of -infantry from ‘the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court and Chancery.’ -Lyttleton died of a chill contracted whilst drilling his recruits, and -was succeeded by Chief Justice Heath. A regiment of foot ‘for the -security of the Universitie and Cittie of Oxford,’ and a regiment of -cavalry ‘very fine and well-horsed,’ to guard the King’s person, did not -exhaust the fighting capacity of the Lawyers, for the majority of the -Bar, who saw the real issue at stake in the country, sided with the -Parliament. Bulstrode Whitelock, Lieutenant-General Jones, and -Commissary Ireton were Gentlemen of the Robe, who rose to eminence in -the service of the Commonwealth. John Hampden, we have seen, was a -member of the Inner Temple; Oliver St. John was a member of Lincoln’s -Inn, and so, too, tradition says, was Oliver Cromwell, who, when Captain -of the Slepe Troop of the Essex Association, occupied chambers in the -old Gatehouse here. - -Dugdale quotes some orders that were drawn up, in the reign of King -James, for establishing ‘the Company of the Inns of Court and Chancery -in their exercises of Military Discipline,’ among which was the wise -provision that ‘if anyone be a common swearer, or quarreller, he shall -be cashiered.’ The number was limited to 600, and ‘It is intended that -no Gentlemen are to be enjoyned to exercise in this kind, but such as -shall voluntarily offer themselves, to be tolerated to do it at their -own voluntary charge.’ The officers were to be chosen by their Captain; -every House to give their own Gentlemen their rank, and the priority of -the Houses to be decided by chance of dice. - -During the rising of the Young Pretender in ’45, Chief Justice Willes -raised a regiment ‘for the defence of the King’s person.’ The occasion -for arms passed away quickly, and it was not till 1780 that the -barristers and students found themselves compelled once more to meet -force by force. For the Gordon Rioters, after sacking Lord Mansfield’s -house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, set fire to a distillery belonging to a -papist, near Barnard’s Inn, and the gutters of Holborn ran with blazing -spirit, of which the rioters drank until they died. It was to escape the -fury of the mob that John Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon, escorted his -lovely young wife from his house in Carey Street to the Middle Temple, -of which he was a member. Her dress was torn, her hat lost, and her hair -dishevelled by the violence of the rioters. ‘The scoundrels have got -your hat, Bessie,’ cried the gallant husband, who had made a runaway -match with her, ‘but never mind, they have left you your hair!’ - -So long as the riots continued, the Lawyers kept armed watch in the -Halls of their respective Societies. At the Inner Temple the mob forced -the gate, ‘and would no doubt have plundered and burnt the place as Wat -Tyler’s followers did four centuries before, had not a sergeant of the -Guards, who acted as military instructor to the law-gentlemen, called -out to the armed Templars: “Take care no gentleman fires from behind!” -The rioters, fearing that some ambush had been prepared for them, took -to their heels and never again molested this sanctuary of the law. In -and around Gray’s Inn, a similar armed watch kept the ‘No Popery’ people -at bay, and many years later Sir Samuel Romilly used to point out the -gate where, musket in hand, he had stood sentry during some of the worst -nights of the riots. The Lincoln’s Inn students, it seems--or, as -another account says, those of the Temple--would have joined the -military in repressing the riots, but were told by one of the officers -in command that he did not wish ‘to see his own men shot!’[58] - -After the French Revolution, at the first rumour of invasion by the -armies of the Republic, companies of Volunteers were recruited from -Lincoln’s Inn and the Temple. Two corps appear to have been formed--one -known as the Bloomsbury and Inns of Court Association, and the other the -Legal Association. The Lincoln’s Inn Corps was commanded by Sir William -Grant, then Master of the Rolls, who had seen service in Canada, at the -Siege of Quebec. The Temple Companies were commanded by Lord Erskine, -who had served in the Royal Navy before he took to the Law. - -Embodied in 1803, the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court took part in the -grand Review of Volunteers in Hyde Park before the King. When the Temple -Companies defiled before King George III., His Majesty asked Lord -Erskine, who commanded them, who they were. ‘They are all lawyers, sir,’ -said Erskine. ‘What! what!’ exclaimed the King. ‘All lawyers? Then call -them the Devil’s Own!’ - -Many amusing stories are told of the Lawyer Volunteers--how Erskine used -to read the word of command from the back of a paper like a brief, and -how Lord Eldon and Lord Ellenborough had to be dismissed for sheer -inability to learn the ‘goose-step.’ And it was said that when the word -‘charge’ was given, every member of the Corps produced a note-book and -forthwith wrote down six and eightpence! Such was the origin of the -subsequent Volunteer Corps, which, when the Volunteer movement came -again to the front in the crisis of 1859, was enrolled as the 23rd -Middlesex--a title afterwards changed to the 14th Middlesex. Upon the -standard of this Inns of Court Volunteer Corps it was proposed to -inscribe the appropriate phrase, ‘Retained for the Defence.’ Its popular -title, the Devil’s Own, which it still keeps, is inherited from George -III.’s witticism--if it was indeed his--anent the Legal Association. - -For the South African War some forty men were selected from the Inns of -Court for service with the specially raised City Imperial Volunteers, -popularly known as the C.I.V. In the welter of War Office rearrangements -the existence of the Devil’s Own has been almost miraculously preserved -‘for the Defence.’ But, of course, its title has been altered. The 14th -(Inns of Court) Middlesex Volunteer Rifle Corps has now become the 27th -London Regiment. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -GRAY’S INN - - -Beyond Lincoln’s Inn, across Holborn--the road which takes its name from -the burn that flowed through the hollow--lies Gray’s Inn, a great quiet -domain, quadrangle upon quadrangle, with a large space of greensward -enclosed within it. - -‘Nothing else in London,’ so Nathaniel Hawthorne noted, ‘is so like the -effect of a spell as to pass under one of these archways and find -yourself transported from the jumble, rush, tumult, uproar, as of an age -of weekdays condensed into the present hour, into what seems an eternal -Sabbath. It is very strange to find so much of ancient quietude right in -the monster city’s very jaws--which yet the monster shall not eat -up--right in its very belly indeed, which yet in all these ages it shall -not digest and convert into the same substance as the rest of its -bustling streets.’ - -Yet the site of Gray’s Inn lies outside the City Boundary, and the -Chambers, where Francis Bacon wrote, were set in a quiet spot amidst -gardens, beyond which stretched Gray’s Inn Fields, intersected by the -country roads of Holborn and Gray’s Inn Lane. The latter lane took the -name of Theobald’s Road later, because it led to Theobalds in -Hertfordshire, which was the favourite hunting seat of King James I. In -these fields beyond Gray’s Inn Lord Berkeley’s hounds showed sport to -the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court in the reign of Queen Mary. - -It is indeed difficult to realize and remember how small London was, how -comparatively tiny even the ‘Great Wen,’ which moved Cobbett’s wrath and -disgust, and how recent is the growth of that continuous monotony of -streets, which have spread over the fields where our grandfathers shot -snipe and partridges. Even at the beginning of the last century Gray’s -Inn was a ‘private place in the suburbs,’ suitable for study, removed -from the bustle of the City. ‘The moment the sun peeps out,’ wrote Sir -Samuel Romilly from his Chambers in 1780, ‘I am in the country, having -only one row of houses between me and Highgate and Hampstead.’ - -There is a popular legend that Gray’s Inn derives its name from the -Grey Friars, whose Church stood hard by. But this legend is not in any -way supported by the probabilities. Gray’s Inn, in fact, was the Inn, -_hospitium_, or dwelling-house of the Greys of Wilton. Its site was -included in the Manor of Portpool, the name of which survives in -Portpool Lane. The name of this Manor is derived from Port (= market or -gate), and pool, just as in West Smithfield there was a pool called -Horsepool.[59] The ‘market-pool’ in question may have been that in the -northern Courtyard of Staple Inn, or somewhere else on the property of -the De Greys. - -A very large portion of the Hundred of Ossulston, in which Gray’s Inn -lies, appears to have belonged to the Bishop and Canons of St. Paul’s, -and from the Manor of Portpool an ancient prebend of St. Paul’s -Cathedral takes its name. - -The exact date when the De Greys first came into possession of the Manor -of Portpool is not certain. But Reginald de Grey died in 1308, according -to an Inquisition taken after his death at ‘Purtpole,’ seized of a -messuage and certain lands there, which he held of the Dean and Chapter -of St. Paul, London, by rent, service, and suit. - -This Reginald de Grey was Justiciar of Chester, whose work would often -bring him to the Capital. It is reasonable to suppose that his following -of clerks and lawyers would, as in the case of the Earl of Lincoln, be -resident in his London ‘Inn,’ and thus form the nucleus of what -afterwards developed into a School, Guild, or Society of Lawyers. - -The Society of Gray’s Inn probably came into corporate existence some -time in the fourteenth century. The exact date cannot, indeed, be -determined. As in the case of the other Inns, the known surviving -records are scanty. And this, perhaps, is due to the same cause. - -Fire wrought havoc in Gray’s Inn, as elsewhere, and the earliest -archives of this Inn, as of the Temple, were probably destroyed at the -end of the seventeenth century. In 1687 we learn that, ‘as they were in -the midst of their revels and masquerades, a violent fire broke out, -which destroyed most of the paper buildings that remained; several -records are also lost and burnt or blown up.’ - -Such early records as do exist of the Inn as a corporate institution in -its early days do not amount to convincing evidence, but they do point -to the existence of Gray’s Inn as an Inn of Court in the fourteenth -century. A list of the Readers of the Inn, with their Arms, from the -year 1359, compiled in the reign of Henry VIII. (Harleian MSS.), we may -take for what it is worth. It is said that William Skipwith, a -Serjeant-at-Law in 1355, belonged to Gray’s Inn, and was the first -Reader. Again, in 1589, Sir Christopher Yelverton, in resigning his -membership of Gray’s Inn, as it was compulsory for him to do on being -appointed a Serjeant-at-Law, made a farewell speech to his brother -members, stating that ‘I doe acknowledge myself deeplie and infinitely -indebted unto this House for the singular and exceeding favours that I -and myne ancestors have received in it ... _for two hundred years agoe -at least_ some of them lived here.’ This statement, if accurate, would -prove the Inn to have been a corporate institution at least as early as -1389. Again, we gather from the ‘Paston Letters’ that Sir William -Byllyng, Chief Justice in 1464, told William Paston that he had been ‘a -felaw in Gray’s Inn,’ and also mentioned one Ledam as a ‘felaw’ there. -This is the first, and for many years the last, mention of any Fellows -in Gray’s Inn. It may either be considered to be a confirmation of the -view that the Lawyers’ Society was in possession in the fifteenth -century, or merely a proof that Byllyng himself and Ledam were -fellow-lodgers in some part of Lord Grey’s tenement. But there is, in -fact, no indubitable mention of the Lawyers’ settlement here until the -time of Henry VIII. However, the great-grandson of the Justiciar, -Reginald de Wilton, leased out the _hospitium_ in Pourtepole in 1343. -And in 1370 Lord Grey de Wilton let ‘a certain Inn in Portepole’ for 100 -shillings. Stow, on the authority of one Master Saintlow Kniveton, says -that gentlemen and professors of the Common Law were Lord Grey’s -tenants. At any rate, before the end of the fourteenth century (1397) -the records show that the Lords de Grey had enfeoffed others--who -possibly represented the Society of the Inn--with the use of their -property. Then, in 1506, Edmund, Lord de Grey, decided to part with it -altogether. He was perhaps persuaded to adopt this course by the fact -that the suburban villa of the De Greys was by this time already being -swamped by the rising tide of houses that was flowing westward from the -City. He sold to Hugh Denys and others ‘the Manor of Portpoole, -otherwise called Gray’s Inn, four messuages, four gardens, the site of a -windmill, eight acres of land, ten shillings of free rent, and the -advowson of the Chantry of Portpoole aforesaid.’ - -The Manor presently escheated to the King, and licence was granted to -the previous tenants to alienate to the House of Jesus of Bethlehem at -Shene (_i.e._, Richmond) in Surrey, both the Manor of Portepoole and the -lands in the parish of St. Andrew of Holborn, and the advowson of the -chantry pertaining thereto, to be held to the annual value of ten marks -(£6 13s. 4d.). Then, in 1516, occurs the first distinct mention of a -Society of Lawyers settled in these four messuages, with their gardens, -windmill, and chapel. For an association consisting of two Serjeants and -four Barristers, representatives of a Society of Students of Law, took -out a lease in that year of the Manor of Portpool from the Prior and -Convent of Shene at a rent of £6 13s. 4d. This lease was renewed, at the -same rent, by Henry VIII. when, at the dissolution of the monasteries, -the Inn, together with the whole of the Priory of Shene, passed into the -hands of the Crown. The rent was commuted into a freehold by the -Commissioners of the Commonwealth in 1651, upon payment of a heavy fine. -It was resumed by Charles II., the sale being declared null and void, -and was sold to Sir Philip Matthews. Gray’s Inn thenceforth paid the old -rent to him and his heirs, until, in 1733, the Benchers bought the -freehold of the property from them. It is now the absolute legal -property of the Society of Gray’s Inn. - -By the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Gray’s Inn had risen into great -popularity. The Inns of Court now formed one of the leading Universities -of England--‘the noblest nurseries of humanity and liberty in the -Kingdom,’ Ben Jonson declared. And chief among the Colleges of Law, with -almost double the number of students in any other Inn, stood Gray’s Inn. -The great Lord Burghley always refers to it with the deepest affection, -mentioning it as ‘the place where myself came forthe unto service.’ - -Its popularity, however, can hardly have been due to the luxuriousness -of its chambers, which, we are told, were ‘disagreeably incommodious.’ - -Dugdale remarks that there was ‘not much of beauty or uniformity’ in the -buildings, ‘the structure of the more ancient having been not only very -mean, but of so slender capacity that even the Ancients of this House -were necessitated to lodge double’--as, for instance, in Henry VIII.’s -day, Sir Thomas Nevile wrote to say that he would accept of Mr. -Attorney-General to be his bedfellow in his Chamber there. - -In 1688, it appears, the Inn was divided into three Courts--Holborn, -Coney, and Middle or Chapel Court. Coney and Chapel Courts were -afterwards converted into Gray’s Inn Square--a title conferred upon them -in 1793. - -Holborn Court must have included South Square and Field Court, the -latter so called from its being a passage into the Red Lion Fields,[60] -where a Bowling-Green was laid out in the seventeenth century. When, at -the close of that century, Dr. Barebone, the great builder, bought Red -Lion Fields and began to build upon that site, ‘the Gentlemen of Graies -Inn took notice of it, and thinking it an injury to them, went with a -considerable body of 100 persons, upon which the workmen assaulted the -gentlemen, and flung bricks at them, and the gentlemen at them again, so -a sharp engagement ensued, but the gentlemen routed them at last.’[61] - -The principal entrance to Gray’s Inn was formerly from Gray’s Inn Lane. -It was not till the end of the sixteenth century that, as Stow puts it, -‘the Gentlemen of this House purchased a messuage and a curtillage -situate upon the south side of this House, and thereupon erected a fayre -gate and a gatehouse, for a more convenient and more honourable passage -into the High Street of Holborne, whereof this house stood in much -neede, for the former gates were rather posterns than gates.’ - -By Gray’s Inn Gate, Jacob Tonson, Pope’s publisher, kept his shop before -moving to Fleet Street. Soon after Holborn Gate was erected, the shop -underneath was taken by another bookseller, one Henry Tomes by name, -who, appropriately enough, published the first edition of Bacon’s -‘Advancement of Learning.’ - -The Entrance Gate from Holborn leads us from the throng and bustle of -the streets, the din and rush of the City, and the noisome fumes of -twopenny tubes and motor-buses, through a dull and narrow alley into -South Square--a large, irregular quadrangle of pleasing, harmonious -eighteenth-century houses. Opposite the entrance passage a detached -block faces us (No. 10), containing the Common Room, admirably rebuilt -in 1905. This is connected by an archway with the Hall, Chapel, and -Library. - -The foundation of the Library has been - -[Illustration: A DOORWAY IN SOUTH SQUARE, GRAY’S INN - -IT is one of several classic entrances of this type in the Square, and -bears the date 1738.] - -attributed to Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam. But references to it occur -before 1576, the year in which he became a Member of the Inn.[62] But it -was not till 1737 that the need was felt for the erection of a building -specially intended to house it. Then an Order was passed for building a -Library in Holborn Court, now known as South Square. A hundred years -later additions were made, and in 1883 a new Library building was added, -which is entered separately from the internal angle of South Square, and -which fronts externally upon the then newly-made Gray’s Inn Road. The -Library boasts a small but valuable collection of manuscripts, including -that of Bracton’s ‘De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliæ.’ - -The old Hall was rebuilt in 1556. It follows the usual plan of a -sixteenth-century Hall, having a raised dais and ‘high’ table at the -east end, and the characteristic Tudor bay window on the north side. A -very handsome oak screen, richly carved with Renaissance ornament, and -divided into round arched bays by Ionic columns, conceals the vestibule. -Above the enriched cartouche frieze of the Screen is an open and carved -balustrade, extremely handsome, though of later date, which forms a -front to the Minstrel Gallery. A glazed lantern in the centre of the -Hall indicates the ancient louvre. A very fine open timber roof of the -hammer-beam type covers this charming room, and harmonizes with the -eighteenth-century oak panelling, which lines the walls, and is -decorated with the arms of the Treasurers. A large traceried window over -the Minstrel Gallery, five mullioned and transomed windows on the south -side, and four similar windows, in addition to the large bay window, on -the north, adequately light the Hall. Many of the windows contain fine -heraldic glass, with escutcheons of famous members of the Society.[63] -On the walls of the Hall hang portraits of Kings Charles I. and II., and -James II., Sir Nicholas Bacon and Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, -Baron Verulam, Lord Coke, Sir Christopher Yelverton (1602), Sir John -Turton (1689), Lord Raymond, Chief Justice (1725), Sir James Eyre -(1787), Sir John Hullock (1823), Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, -etc. But the chief treasure is the portrait of Queen Elizabeth, hung -above the dais, which was presented to the Society by Henry Griffith, -one of the Masters of the Bench. - -The exterior of the Hall was sadly ruined by the Goths, or Vandals, of -1826. The walls and gables of dark red brick, ornamented with brick -battlements, and relieved by labels and mullions of stone, were, like -those of the Chapel, rendered hideous by the stucco madness of the age; -mean modern battlements were added; slate was substituted for the warm -red tiles of the old roof; and a wooden lantern of new and feeble design -placed instead of the octangular wooden lantern, with a leaded cupola, -which rose from the centre of the roof. More recently the stucco -disfigurations have been removed, and the old red-brick buttresses and -walls with the stone labels have been happily revealed again. - -There is a tradition in the Inn that the Screen which we have mentioned, -and also some of the dining-tables now used in the Hall, were given to -the Society by Queen Elizabeth. At dinner on Grand Day in each term ‘the -glorious, pious, and immortal memory of good Queen Bess’ is still -solemnly drunk in Hall. Certainly and happily this Hall, one of the most -venerable and most beautiful of all the Halls in London, remains very -much, as regards the interior, what it was in the days of the Virgin -Queen. - -There is another legend which connects the name of good Queen Bess with -this Hall. It is said that Her Majesty was present at the performance in -Gray’s Inn Hall of the masque, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ under the -stage management of Shakespeare. There is no intrinsic improbability -about this. Though the Pension Book does not record any visit of -Elizabeth to Gray’s Inn, the nature of the entries is such that omission -therefrom cannot be said to prove the non-occurrence of an event. -Francis Bacon, who was made a Bencher in 1586, and was elected Treasurer -in 1590, was a _persona grata_ at Court, and not only took a delight in -the preparation of pageantries, but also knew Shakespeare well. It is, -therefore, quite likely that Queen Elizabeth visited the Inn on the -occasion of the production of a masque by Shakespeare.[64] It is at -least certain that in February, 1587, eight Members of Gray’s Inn, -acting apparently with the approval of the Bench, produced a play called -‘The Misfortunes of Arthur’ for the entertainment of Queen Elizaabeth -at Greenwich while Her Majesty was visiting the fair. It was apparently -in connection with this play that Bacon, being then Reader of Gray’s -Inn, wrote to Lord Burleigh as follows: ‘There are a dozen gentlemen of -Gray’s Inn that, out of the honour which they bear to your Lordship and -my Lord Chamberlain, to whom at their last masque they were so much -bounden, are ready to furnish a masque: wishing it were in their power -to perform it according to their minds.’[65] - -The Benchers and Students of Gray’s Inn indulged in the Christmas -_Saturnalia_ of Masques and Revels with as great, or even greater, zest -than the other Societies of Lawyers. And Bacon, philosopher, statesman, -and courtier, was by no means backward in his enjoyment of ‘Masques and -Triumphs.’ ‘These things are but toys,’ he wrote, ‘but since Princes -will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy -than daubed with cost.’ And accordingly he devoted some of his abundant -energy to superintending the festivities in his own Inn, and even to -assisting in the composition of some of the ‘Triumphs.’ - -As early as 1525 mention is made of a masque that was acted in the Hall -here, which was composed by John Roo, Serjeant at the Law, and ‘sore -displeased’ Cardinal Wolsey. George Gascoigne, the poet, a Member of the -Inn, translated plays from the Greek (Euripides’ ‘Jocasta’--the -‘Phœnissæ’?) and Italian for the students to act. And now, in 1594, -there were high festivities at Gray’s Inn, when an extravaganza was -produced bearing the significant title: ‘History of the High and Mighty -Prince Henry, Prince of Purpoole [Portpool], Archduke of Stapulia -[Staple’s Inn] and Bernarda [Barnard’s Inn], Duke of High and Nether -Holborn, Marquis of St. Giles and Tottenham, Great Lord of the Cantons -of Islington, Kentish Town, Paddington, and Knightsbridge, Knight of the -most Heroical Order of the Helmet and Sovereign of the same; who reigned -and died A.D. 1594.’ Owing to the Hall being overcrowded on the first -night, the students of the Inner and Middle Temples quitted the Hall in -dudgeon, and the performance of the main piece had to be adjourned. To -make up for the withdrawal of ‘The History of Prince Henry’ from the -playbill, it was thought ‘good not to offer anything of account saving -Dancing and Revelling with Gentlewomen.... To eke out the programme -Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” was then played by the players.’ - -Thus Gray’s Inn Hall shares with the Hall of the Middle Temple the -distinction of being the only buildings now remaining in London in -which, so far as we know, any of the plays of Shakespeare were performed -in his own time.[66] - -At Shrovetide the Prince of Purpoole and his company entertained Queen -Elizabeth at Greenwich. After the performance Her Majesty ‘willed the -Lord Chamberlain that the gentlemen should be invited on the next day, -which was done, and her Majesty gave them her hand to kiss with most -gracious words of commendation to them: particularly in respect of -Gray’s Inn, as an House that she was much beholden unto for that it did -always study for some Sports to present her with.’ - -The success of this Masque was no doubt largely due to the fact that it -was supposed to contain veiled allusions to many living persons of note, -and that these allusions, uttered by the mimic Councillors of the -Purpoole Court, were known to be written by the greatest of the sons of -Gray’s Inn, Bacon himself. ‘The speeches of the six Councillors,’ says -James Spedding, ‘carry his signature in every sentence.’[67] That they -were written by him, and by him alone, no one who is at all familiar -with his style, either of thought or expression, will for a moment -doubt. - -The Masque prepared by Francis Beaumont, to celebrate the marriage of -the Count Palatine with the Princess Elizabeth, was performed before the -King and Royal Family in the Banqueting House at Whitehall (February 20, -1613), and Francis Bacon, it is recorded, then Solicitor-General, -‘spared no time in the setting forth, ordering, and furnishing’ of it. - -On Twelfth Night, 1614, the ‘Maske of Flowers’ was presented ‘by the -Gentlemen of Graies Inn’ in the same Banqueting Hall upon the occasion -of the marriage of the Earl of Somerset. This Masque, when published, -was dedicated to Sir Francis Bacon, who apparently bore the whole -expense of the performance. In 1887 ‘The Masque of Flowers’ was revived, -being again performed with great success in Gray’s Inn Hall. Other -masques of this and later times are mentioned by Mr. Douthwaite (p. 234 -_et seq._). Of the Masque performed by the Inns of Court before Charles -I., which has been already referred to, ‘The Triumph of Peace,’ James -Shirley, the dramatist, was the author. He had chambers in Gray’s Inn. - -The form of self-government that obtained at Gray’s Inn was very similar -to that which the other Inns enjoyed. - -The Officer named Treasurer at other Inns was at Gray’s Inn known as the -Pensioner. According to Sir Nicholas Bacon and some other Commissioners -who drew up a report upon the Houses of Court for the information of -Henry VIII., ‘a Pension, or, as some Houses call it, a Parliament,’ was -summoned every quarter, or more if need be, ‘for the good ordering of -the House, and the reformation of such things as seem meet to be -reformed.’ These Pensions or Parliaments were ‘nothing else but a -conference of Benchers and Utter Barristers only, and in some other -Houses an Assembly of Benchers and such of the Utter Barristers and -other ancient and wise men of the House as the Benchers have elected to -them before time, and these together are named the Sage Company.’ This -report does not mention the Ancients of Gray’s Inn. ‘The Grand Company -of Ancients’ consisted of three classes--Barristers called by seniority -to that degree; sons of Judges, who by right of inheritance were -admitted Ancients; and persons of distinction who, in the words of -Fortescue already quoted, were placed in the Inns of Court, not so much -to make the Laws their study as to form their manners and to preserve -them from the contagion of vice. The Constitution of the Inns, and the -correct relation between the Benchers and Junior Members, were not -arrived at without certain crises. The internal politics of the Houses -were occasionally lively. Thus at the Middle Temple the right of the -Benchers to regulate the affairs of the Inn, without reference to the -Parliaments of barristers and students to whom, apparently, the right of -self-government within certain limits was, by ancient custom, entrusted -in the Vacations, was a ground of hot dispute in the seventeenth and -eighteenth centuries. The right to hold a Parliament at any time was -demanded. The Benchers replied that the Junior Members were only -entitled to deliberate and represent on matters occurring in -Vacation.[68] - -The Chapel of Gray’s Inn Loftie describes with equal brevity and justice -as ‘ancient, but without interest.’ - -In 1315 John, Lord Grey, had given lands in - -[Illustration: GRAYS INN SQUARE - -THE Hall (on the right) was rebuilt in 1556, and the chapel, covered -with greenish stucco (in the centre), is ancient, but has suffered much -from wholesale restorations.] - -the manor to the Canons of St. Bartholomew, to endow a Chaplain. -Chaplain and Chapel alike passed to the lawyers along with the Inn, and -it is likely enough that the present old Chapel, in spite of plaster and -bad stained glass, represents at heart the fourteenth-century Chapel of -the Greys. - -The earliest mention of it in the existing records of the Society is in -the eleventh year of Elizabeth. It was ‘beautified and renewed’ at the -end of the seventeenth century, and received a blanket of stucco, a -fringe of silly battlements, and an ugly slate roof in the first -part of the nineteenth. Some armorial bearings, chiefly of the -seventeenth-century Bishops and Archbishops, survive in the Eastern -Window of five lights, but much of the painted glass mentioned by -Dugdale has disappeared or been removed to the Hall. - -Beyond South Square stretches a delightful quadrangle of homogeneous -houses, which contains a large gravelled centre, bordered by a few -sickly plane-trees. This is Gray’s Inn Square, which, as we have seen, -took the place of Coney Court and Chapel Court. It was at No. 1, Coney -Court, burnt down in 1678, that Bacon, ‘the greatest, wisest, meanest of -mankind,’ is said to have lived. The site of his rooms is covered now by -No. 1, Gray’s Inn Square, part of the row of buildings erected in 1868 -at the West end of this Court. In 1622 Bacon was granted chambers in the -Inn consisting of ‘certayne buildings in Graies Inne [of late called -Bacon’s Buildings] for the terme of fiftie years.’ - -Francis Bacon was entered by his father, the Lord Keeper, on June 27, -1576, together with his four brothers, Nicholas, Nathaniel, Edward, and -Anthony. This was that Sir Nicholas who founded the Cursitor’s Office or -Inn, from which Cursitor Street takes its name; Cursitor Street, with -its bitter memories of sponging-houses and bailiffs, which have been -improved away along with the lumbering machinery of the law that made -such things possible. Sir Nicholas had been Treasurer of the Inn in -1536. Francis Bacon, in the dedication quoted below, describes Gray’s -Inn as ‘the place whence my father was called to the highest place of -justice, and where myself have lived and had my proceedings, and -therefore few men are so bound to their Societies by obligation both -ancestral and personal as I am to yours.’ An Order in the following -year, 1577, directed that all the sons of Sir Nicholas Bacon should be -‘of the Grand Company and not be bound to any vacations.’ In the -twenty-eighth year of Elizabeth, Francis Bacon was advanced to the -Readers’ Table. He was elected Treasurer in 1608.[69] As -Solicitor-General he dedicated his ‘Arguments of Law’ to ‘my lovinge -friends and fellowes, the Readers, Ancients, Utter Barresters and -Students of Graies Inn,’ signing himself ‘your assured loving friend and -fellow, F. B.’ - -It was from Gray’s Inn that the procession of Earls, Barons, Knights and -Gentlemen started, which accompanied him to Westminster when he became -Lord Keeper. And it was to Gray’s Inn that he returned after his -impeachment and fall, coming ‘to lie at his old lodgings,’ and write -many of his Treatises and Essays. ‘Those noble studies,’ says Macaulay, -the brilliant historian, who himself occupied chambers at No. 8, South -Square, in a building that was destroyed to make room for the extension -of the Library--‘those noble studies, for which he had found leisure in -the midst of professional drudgery and of courtly intrigues, gave to -this last sad stage of his life a dignity beyond what power or titles -could bestow. Impeached, convicted, sentenced, driven with ignominy -from the presence of his Sovereign, shut out from the deliberations of -his fellow-nobles, loaded with debt, branded with dishonour, sinking -under the weight of years, sorrows and diseases, Bacon was Bacon still.’ -He commenced a Digest of the Laws of England, a History of England under -the Tudors, a body of Natural History, a Philosophical Romance. ‘He made -extensive and valuable additions to his Essays. He published the -inestimable treatise, “De Augmentis Scientiarum.” The very trifles with -which he amused himself in hours of pain and languor bore the marks of -his mind. The best collection of jests in the world is that which he -dictated from memory, without referring to any book, on a day on which -illness had rendered him incapable of serious study.’ It is the brain -and personality of such a genius that haunts this spacious, quiet square -of Gray’s Inn. And presently we shall see how upon the Inn itself and -its pleasaunces this many-sided mind impressed itself to our advantage. - -Through an arch in the far angle of the Square we pass to a narrow, -oblong building of the crudest early nineteenth-century type, looking -across an ugly wall upon the noisy Gray’s Inn Road. This is the ugly -line of Verulam Buildings (1811), which Charles Lamb justly called -‘accursed,’ for they encroached upon the gardens, ‘cutting out delicate -crankles, and shouldering away one or two of the stately alcoves of the -terrace.’ A postern-gate at the far corner leads out to the junction of -Gray’s Inn Road with Theobald’s Road, a dismal thoroughfare, which is -bounded by a railing, through which a delightful vista of green trees -and turf gladdens the sight of the passer-by--turf and green trees which -form the gracious playground of the children for whom the gates are -opened each summer evening. - -Another Gateway by ‘Jockey Fields,’ in Theobald’s Road, leads past -Raymond Buildings, the same kind of ugly, unabashed, stock-brick -barracks as Verulam Buildings, and dating from the same period. Crude -and unpleasing as these dull blocks are to behold, they have the great -advantage of being very pleasant to live in, for they line and look out -upon the Gardens which the great Philosopher laid out. Raymond Buildings -end in Field Court, which in turn adjoins South Square. One side of -Field Court is formed by the iron railings and fine iron Gateway (1723) -which terminate the Gardens. Square stone gate-posts carry the Griffin -of the Inn. For the device of Gray’s Inn is a Griffin, or, in a field -sable. Within this Gate a broad avenue of plane-trees, flanked by grassy -lawns and terraces, leads to a green earth-work terrace at the northern -end of the gardens. This terrace was probably constructed with the -intention of shutting out the view of the squalid houses that had begun -to spring up in that direction. - -James Spedding records that Raleigh, just before his last disastrous -voyage to the New World, had a long conversation with Bacon in those -Gardens. And it is said that Bacon planted here a ‘catalpa tree,’ very -likely brought home by Raleigh, which still survives, and is certainly -one of the oldest in England. This is the sprawling, senile tree, -tottering to its grave with the aid of a dozen propping sticks, which -forms a striking feature upon the left-hand side of the path, looking -from the Gateway. - -Bacon’s love of gardening is breathed in every line of his delightful -Essay upon Gardens. ‘God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed it -is the purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refreshment to the -spirits of man, without which buildings and palaces are but gross -handyworks.’ And it appears probable that the Gardens of Gray’s Inn were -laid out under his direction in 1597 and the following years. For in -1597 the Society ordered ‘that the summe of £7 15s. 4d., due to Mr. -Bacon for planting of trees in the walkes, be paid next terme.’ In the -following year a further supply was ordered ‘of more yonge elme trees in -the places of such as are decayed, and that a new Rayle and quicksett -hedge bee set uppon the upper walke at the good discretion of Mr. Bacon -and Mr. Wilbraham, soe that the charges thereof do not exceed the sum of -seventy pounds.’ And, this limit having apparently been carefully -observed, in 1600, £60 6s. 8d. was paid to Mr. Bacon ‘for money -disbursed about the Garnishing of the Walkes.’ - -There is also record of a Summer-house erected by Bacon ‘upon a small -mount’ in the Gardens, which bore a Latin inscription to the effect that -Francis Bacon erected it in memory of Jeremy Bettenham, formerly Rector -of the Inn, in the year 1609. It was destroyed in the eighteenth -century. - -The rooks which nest in the trees of Gray’s Inn Gardens, and which fare -sumptuously upon the fragments of food daily offered to them by the -residents in the Chambers of Gray’s Inn, made their first appearance -when the elms on the Chesterfield property in May Fair were felled. -They appear to have driven out a pair of carrion crows which had built -here time out of mind, and whose ancestors may well have looked down -upon the author of the ‘Novum Organum,’ as he walked in those quiet -alleys with his friend, or mused as he rested on the seat which was so -callously destroyed a century and a half ago.[70] - -The principal entrance to the Gardens was from Fullwood’s Rents, and, -when coffee-drinking first came into vogue, Coffee-Houses sprang up -here, and reaped a rich harvest from the crowds who made of Gray’s Inn -Gardens a fashionable and popular promenade. - -For Gray’s Inn Walks became as fashionable a resort in the seventeenth -century as Merton Gardens at Oxford in the eighteenth, and when Pepys’ -wife was ‘making some clothes,’ he took her here to observe the -fashions. And Sir Roger de Coverley loved to pace the green terrace of -Gray’s Inn. - -The figure of the great Philosopher overshadows all others at Gray’s -Inn, but the Society can boast a long line of members distinguished in -Politics, the Law and Literature. Sir Philip Sidney was a Member of this -Inn; so were John Hampden and John Pym, and Thomas Cromwell became an -Ancient in 1534. - -Sir William Gascoigne, Chief Justice 1400, is claimed by both Gray’s Inn -and the Middle Temple. The former can at any rate point to Gascoigne’s -arms in the bay-window of the Hall. - -George Gascoigne, the poet, William Camden, and William Dugdale, the -great and learned antiquaries, were all members of Gray’s Inn. Among the -poets who resided here are George Chapman, Samuel Butler, John -Cleveland, Oliver Goldsmith, and Robert Southey, who entered the Inn in -1797. Cobbett dwelt here for a season, and another ‘Rymer’ in the author -of the ‘Fœdera.’ Dr. Kenealy, who defended ‘the Claimant,’ was the -last barrister to have business Chambers here, the tide of legal -business having flowed down Chancery Lane. Gray’s Inn can boast a Royal -Bencher in the person of H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, who, by a -‘Special Pension’ in 1881, was admitted a Member, called to the Bar, and -elected a Bencher in one day. - -Such, in brief outline, is the history of the Four Inns of Court, in -which is vested the monopoly of calling to the Bar of England such -students as have kept terms at the Inn, and have commended themselves -to the approval of the Benchers. Starting as independent voluntary -associations of students and practisers of the law, either in connection -with the Court of some great Justiciar, or merely in hostels, where the -apprentices might find board and lodging during their years of learning, -they developed into Societies, nobly housed, which controlled their -students after a collegiate fashion. - -Without charters, endowments, or title-deeds, they developed on the -lines of self-governing Guilds, subject only to a certain ill-defined -control by the Judges, whilst their property was vested in a -self-elected Committee of Benchers for the time being. It is under the -guidance of these Committees that the Inns of Court have gained and -maintained their position through the centuries, training the successive -generations of barristers in the high traditions of honour and ability -characteristic of the English Bar, and imparting to their youthful -apprentices at the law, through the social system of ‘keeping terms,’ -the unwritten rules of right conduct in the legal profession. - -It remains now to glance at the Inns which started level in the race -with the Inns of Court, but whose history and development have been so -different. - -[Illustration: THE GABLED HOUSES OUTSIDE STAPLE INN, HOLBORN - -THEY are the sole survivors of Elizabethan domestic architecture to be -found in the streets of London. The restoration of the frontage was made -in 1884, under the care of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse.] - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -INNS OF CHANCERY - - -As is the case with regard to the origin of the Inns of Court, the first -beginnings of the Inns of Chancery are buried in obscurity, from which -they can only be retrieved by the discovery of new documents. It seems -probable, in the absence of definite evidence, that there was at first -no distinction between Inns of Court and Inns of Chancery, but that, all -alike, Inns of Court and the ten lesser Inns called Inns of Chancery, -mentioned by Fortescue, were originally mere Hostels where Students of -the Law congregated, lived and learned. Then, in course of time, the -natural laws of differentiation and development came into play, and -these Inns or Hostels gradually resolved themselves into two classes. -The four great Inns of Court developed, as we have seen, from small -associations in small hostels into great and wealthy institutions upon -lines of aristocratic monopoly. The other Inns, taking their names from -the Clerks of the Chancery who chiefly studied there, passed through -different stages of development into subjection under the Inns of Court, -and after a period, during which they partly performed the function of -preparatory schools for the preliminary training of young students who -were afterwards admitted as members of the Inns of Court, crystallized -into close corporations of Solicitors and Attorneys. Then all official -connection between the two kinds of Inns came to an end. - -Thus, whilst the Inns of Court became aristocratic Schools of Law, -reserved for lawyers of gentle birth, the Inns of Chancery were -gradually monopolized by Writ clerks, both of the Court of Chancery and -of the Court of Common Pleas, and by other minor officials. These -gradually ousted the well-born Apprentices who were training on for the -Inns of Court. On the one hand Attorneys and Solicitors were excluded -from the Inns of Court. In 1557, for instance, they were refused -admission to the Inner Temple, and ordered to repair to their Inns of -Chancery. In 1574 such as remained were expelled the House. The Middle -Temple soon followed the example of the Inner. On the other hand, in -spite of the remonstrances of the Benchers, the Attorneys, who had -gained an ascendancy over the Inns of Chancery, set themselves to secure -a monopoly of them. Without definitely excluding students for the Bar, -they received them so ungraciously that, for instance, Sir Mathew Hale -passed straight from Magdalen College, Oxford, to Lincoln’s Inn (1629). -Indeed, John Selden, the antiquary (1584-1654), seems to have been the -last of the great lawyers to be trained at these schools for the larger -Societies. Thus one step in the ladder of education, so much approved by -Coke and Fortescue, was eliminated. The Inns of Chancery were abandoned -to the Attorneys.[71] They then gradually fell out of fashion and -deteriorated in discipline as in prestige. By the middle of the -eighteenth century they had become obsolete. But if they fell early into -decline, their decadence was long drawn out. The proceedings of the -Court of Chancery in 1900, in regard to the sale of Clifford’s Inn, -marked their final disappearance. - -Of these ten lesser Inns, mentioned by Fortescue as having, in his day, -each one hundred students studying the first principles of the Law and -preparing to pass into the four Inns of Court, all have been now -dissolved, and many of them have been destroyed. - -In the days when Clerks of Chancery and Attorneys dwelt in these Inns, -together with embryo Barristers who were learning the rudiments of their -legal craft, Stow neatly describes them as Provinces, for they were -severally subject to one of the Inns of Court. Their relationship is -obscure. Mr. Inderwick[72] compares it to that which the smaller seaport -towns of the Kent and Sussex coast bore to the more important Cinque -Ports. - -An Inn of Court appointed Readers for its Inns of Chancery, settled the -precedence of their Principals, admitted their members at a reduced fee, -and entertained their Ancients at grand feasts and festivals. Each Inn -of Chancery had its own Hall for meetings, moots, readings, and -festivity, but none could boast of a Chapel of its own. It was only -after having studied the necessary exercises at these ‘provincial’ Inns, -including boltings, moots, and putting of cases, that the young students -or apprentices were admitted as students at one of the four Inns of -Court. - -Of the Inns of Chancery, Staple Inn and Barnard’s Inn were attached to -Gray’s Inn; Clifford’s Inn, Clement’s Inn, and Lyon’s Inn to the Inner -Temple; Furnival’s Inn and Thavie’s Inn to Lincoln’s Inn; and to the -Middle Temple, New Inn and Strand Inn. - -Of these by far the most interesting and picturesque at the present time -is Staple Inn. - -It was of this ‘little nook composed of two irregular quadrangles’ that -Dickens wrote in ‘Edwin Drood’: - -‘It is one of those nooks, the turning into which out of the clashing -street imparts to the relieved pedestrian the sensation of having cotton -in his ears, and velvet soles on his boots. It is one of those nooks -where a few smoky sparrows twitter in smoky trees, as though they called -to one another: “Let us play at country,” and where a few feet of -garden-mould and a few yards of gravel enable them to do that refreshing -violence to their tiny understandings.’ - -Nothing could be more striking or delightful than the block of quaint -old buildings, with its overhanging stories of timber and rough-cast, -and its gabled roof. The preservation of this delightful specimen of -Elizabethan domestic architecture, which stands at Holborn Bars like an -island of art in an ocean of crude ugliness, we owe to the wisdom and -good taste of the Directors of the Prudential Assurance Company, to whom -the site now belongs. It is a pleasure to express one’s gratitude to -them. - -Staple Inn Hall, which forms the south side of the first Court within -the old entrance archway facing Holborn, was built and embellished -between 1580 and 1592. The frontage dates from about the same time, so -that Sir George Buck, writing in 1615, could describe it as ‘the fayrest -Inn of Chancery in this University.’ The Hall is now used for the -Institute of Actuaries. It retains a delightful little louvre, with a -bell in a cupola. Mullioned windows and a charming Gothic doorway (1753) -open, on the far side of the Hall, upon the garden front. - -Beyond this old sunk garden, which is bounded by a terrace and iron -railing, the Patent Office occupies part of what was once the property -of the Inn. To the west the garden is overshadowed by the flamboyant -atrocity of a gross Bank building. The houses which form these quiet -courts were for the most part rebuilt in the eighteenth century. No. 10, -in the second Court, is that immortalized by Dickens in ‘Edwin Drood’ -(Chapter XI.). It was rebuilt in 1747, and the initials over the doorway -do _not_ stand for Perhaps John Thomas, or Perhaps Joe Tyler, nor for -any other of the phrases the humourist suggests, but for plain Principal -John Thomson, who ruled in that year. - -Staple, or Stapled Inn, has been so called since the beginning of the -fourteenth century (1313). The Staple Inn, or House, was the Warehouse -in which commodities, especially wool, chargeable with export duties, -might be stored, weighed, and taxed. It was the business of the Company -of Staplers, established in the reign of Edward III., ‘to see the Custom -duly paid.’[73] The proximity of Portpool Market--or Ely Fair, as it was -called, after the Bishops of Ely, whose large property lay on the North -side of Holborn--doubtless added much to the importance of this Staple -Inn. - -The site of this Inn may possibly have been included in the Old Temple -property, which the Templars sold to the Bishopric of Lincoln when they -moved South (Chapter I.). However that may be, some time in the -fifteenth century Staple Inn ceased to have any claim to be a -Customs-house,[74] and was given over to the Lawyers. It was not a -surprising change, for the conduct of the King’s wool-trade and the -settlement of the disputes that must have arisen in connection with the -clearing of woollen merchandise for export were likely to have made ‘Le -Stapled Halle’ long ere this a home of clerks and apprentices of the -Law.[75] The steps by which this home of lawyers passed into the control -of the ‘Grand Company and Fellows’ of Staple Inn, with a Principal and -Pensioner at their Head, are not known. They must, at least, have been -taken long before ‘the first Grant of the inheritance thereof to the -Ancients of Gray’s Inn’ mentioned by Dugdale as being dated in the -twentieth year of Henry VIII. The transaction referred to would seem to -have been rather in the nature of the creation of a trust. At any rate, -Staple Inn became an appendance of Gray’s Inn. But by the end of the -last century it had long ceased to fulfil the functions either of a -Customs-house or of an Inn for Law-students. - -Finally, in 1884, the Society of Staple sold their property, and the -Prudential Assurance Company presently acquired it. Under their -public-spirited and artistic care, Mr. Alfred Waterhouse made a -practical and scholarly restoration, displacing from - -[Illustration: STAPLE INN HALL AND COURTYARD - -THE Hall was built between 1580 and 1592, and has a fine hammer-beam -roof, and some old stained glass in its windows.] - -the frontage the plaster with which the eighteenth century had -disfigured it. - -The most famous occupant of rooms in Staple Inn was Dr. Johnson (1759), -who came here after he had completed his ‘Dixonary.’ It was here that he -wrote his little romance of ‘Rasselas,’ in order to pay for his mother’s -funeral. - -The Mackworth coat-of-arms over a modest doorway between 22 and 23 -Holborn used to indicate until recently the entrance to Barnard’s Inn, -the other Inn attached to Gray’s Inn. - -This was the residence of Dr. John Mackworth, who was Dean of Lincoln in -the reign of Henry VI. When leased by his successor to Lyonel Barnard, -it took the name which it now bears. The Inn was let to students of Law -as early as 1454, for in that year Stow records that there was a great -affray in Fleet Street between ‘men of Court’ and the inhabitants there, -in the course of which the Queen’s Attorney was slain. As punishment, -the principal Governors of Clifford’s Inn, Furnival’s Inn, and Barnard’s -Inn were sent to prison. - -Barnard’s Inn was governed by a Principal and twelve Ancients. The study -of legal forms was insisted on with great strictness. Fines were imposed -of one halfpenny for every defective word, one farthing for every -defective syllable, and one penny for every improper word in writing the -writs according to the form of the Chancery, in the moots of the -House.[76] - -A Reader was appointed by Gray’s Inn, and great respect was paid to him. -The Principal, accompanied by the Ancients and Gentlemen in Commons in -their gowns, met him at the rails of the House on his coming, and -conducted him into the Hall. - -This is a delightful fifteenth-century building. The original timber and -rough-cast exterior was cased in red brick in the eighteenth century. It -has a high-pitched roof and louvre in the centre, and, within, an open -timber roof, and some heraldic glass in the windows (1500). It stands in -a small courtyard, beyond which there used to be another Court, wherein -were the Library and Kitchen, and, beyond, houses grouped about a -railed-in garden. - -Portraits of Lord Chief Justice Holt, the most distinguished Principal, -and of Lord Burghley, Bacon, Lord Keeper Coventry, and Charles II. once -hung upon the walls. In 1854 the Society consisted of a Principal, nine -Ancients, and five Companions. The Companions were chosen by the -Principal and Ancients. The advantage of being a Companion was, in the -evidence given before the Royal Commission in 1855, stated to be ‘the -dining’; the advantage of being an Ancient ‘dinners and some little -fees.’ Barnard’s Inn is now the property of the Mercers’ Company, who -moved their School hither in 1894. Only the Hall now (1909) remains of -the old buildings. Even the passage from Holborn has been altered, and -an imposing block of offices, fronting Holborn, is in course of -erection, behind which lie the Hall and modern School buildings. - -Furnival’s Inn, which Stow says belonged to Sir William Furnival and -Thomasin, his wife, in the reign of Richard II., lay to the west of the -Bishop of Ely’s Palace in Holborn. It was brought by the heiress of the -Furnivals to the Earls of Shrewsbury, from whom it passed to the Society -of Lincoln’s Inn, and was by them leased to the Principal and Fellows of -the Inn of Chancery there inhabiting (1548). - -Inigo Jones erected a building on this site in 1640, which was -afterwards demolished. It was rebuilt in 1820, and the site is now -occupied by part of the new offices of the Prudential Assurance Company. -Of this Inn Sir Thomas More was Reader for more than three years, and -here Charles Dickens wrote the ‘Pickwick Papers,’ and here he gave John -Westlock chambers in ‘Martin Chuzzlewit.’ To Charles Dickens’s rooms in -Furnival’s Inn came an artist seeking employment, who offered two or -three drawings to illustrate ‘Pickwick,’ which the rising young author -did not think suitable. This artist was William Makepeace Thackeray. A -bust of Dickens by Percy Fitzgerald is placed within the entrance of the -modern pink pile of offices. - -Opposite Ely House, and adjoining Crookhorn Alley, stood Thavie’s Inn, -which is another form, no doubt, of Davy’s Inn. It is spelt so in the -early records, and the will of John Tavy (1348) mentions his hospice in -St. Andrew, Holborn (see pp. 5 and 39). The spelling ‘Tavy,’ I suppose, -indicates the Welsh origin of this Mr. Davy. A John Davy occurs as -holding lands in Holborn fifty years later. This Inn was also closely -connected with Lincoln’s Inn. - -Of the Inns of Chancery which were attached to the Inner Temple, only -Clifford’s Inn survives, and its days are numbered. Lyon’s Inn, which is -mentioned as an Inn of Chancery in King Henry V.’s time, lay between Old -Wych Street and Holywell Street, and disappeared with them - -[Illustration: THE GREAT HALL OF THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE - -STREET’S noble Gothic Hall, through which the Judges pass in dignified -procession at the opening of the Courts after the Long Vacation.] - -in the course of the recent Strand improvements. Clement’s Inn took its -name probably from ‘a fountain called St. Clement’s Well,’ which Stow -describes (1603) as ‘North from the parish Church of S. Clement’s, and -neare unto an Inn of Chancerie called Clement’s Inne; [it] is faire -curbed square with hard stone, kept cleane for common use, and is -alwayes full.’ - -The picturesque Queen Anne buildings of the Inn have disappeared, and in -their place some more pretentious flats and offices have been erected. -They looked out, until the beginning of 1909, upon a green open space, -some two acres in extent, bounded by the Law Courts, Carey Street, and -the Strand. A road runs under the Judges’ Rooms in the Law Courts from -the Strand to a flight of steps, which lead up to Carey Street beneath -ornamental arches. This space was intended to be covered by the Law -Courts, according to the original design. But the estimates were cut -down, and the block which was meant to cover this space was sacrificed. -The inconvenience which has resulted for lawyers and litigants ever -since has been the gain of the less litigious public. For, thanks to the -generosity of the late Mr. W. H. Smith, the vacant place was laid out as -a lawn and flower-garden, and has long formed a refreshing strip of -greensward in the heart of this busy centre of London. Two-thirds of it -have now been sacrificed, for the pressing need of more accommodation is -at last to be met by the extension of the Law Courts, and the erection -of four new Courts, which have been begun at the north-west end of this -plot. The new building, designed to harmonize with Street’s somewhat -bastard Gothic building, will be connected with it by a bridge of three -arches spanning the walk between Carey Street and the Strand. - -Clifford’s Inn still survives. It can be approached either from Chancery -Lane, through Serjeants’ Inn, from Fetter Lane, or from Fleet Street. -Out of the roar and bustle of that busy thoroughfare a passage leads up -past the porch of St. Dunstan’s Church. On the north side of a tiny -Court, from which an archway leads into a larger one, stands a tiny -Hall, with a large clock and windows full of heraldic glass, amongst -which the chequers of the Cliffords are conspicuous. This Hall in its -present shape, re-cased and transmogrified, dates from 1797, but a -fourteenth-century arch at the end of it points to pristine beauty. - -A few separate houses are dotted irregularly about on the opposite -side. But the chief charm of Clifford’s Inn lies in the green grass -space and shady trees, a garden bounded by railings, and on two sides by -old brick buildings, with deep cornices and tiled roofs, which forms so -grateful a view from the interior of the Record Office, or from the -Court of Serjeants’ Inn. - -The Inn is called after Robert de Clifford, whose widow (1344) let the -messuage to students of the law for £10 per annum. It was acquired by -the Society at a rental of £4 towards the end of the fifteenth century. -The Society was composed of the Principal and Rulers, and the Juniors or -‘Kentish Men.’ It would be of interest, if for no other reason, because -Coke and Selden once resided here. - -It was in Clifford’s Inn that Sir Matthew Hale and the other -Commissioners sat to deal with the cases which arose after the Great -Fire of London and the questions of boundaries and rebuilding. - -Clifford’s Inn was always reckoned, except by its members, a dependency -of the Inner Temple. No Inn of Court, at any rate, acquired its lease or -freehold. Clifford’s Inn paid its own way, had its own customs, its -great days, and peculiar rules. The most interesting of its old customs -was a kind of grace, which used to be performed after dinner by a -member of what was mysteriously called the Kentish Mess. The Chairman of -this Mess, for which a special table was always provided, after bowing -gravely to the Principal, took from a servitor four small loaves joined -together in the shape of a cross. These he dashed upon the table before -him three times, amid profound silence. The bread was then passed down -to the last man in the Kentish Mess, who carried it from the Hall. A -number of old women used to wait at the buttery to receive these crumbs -which had fallen from the rich man’s table. The exact significance of -the symbolism of this performance is not clear. It is probably the usual -mixture of Pagan rites and Christian observance. Antiquaries, indeed, -have suggested that ‘this singular custom typifies offerings to Ceres, -who first taught mankind the use of laws, and originated those peculiar -ornaments of civilization, their expounders, the lawyers.’[77] - -Of the Inns attached to the Middle Temple, the Strand, or Chester’s Inn, -so-called ‘for the nearnesse to the Bishop of Chester’s house’ (Stow), -stood near the Church of St. Mary le Strand, without Temple Bar. It was -pulled down by the Protector, Duke of Somerset, ‘who in place thereof -raised that large and beautiful house, but yet unfinished, called -Somerset house.’ - -Lastly, there was New Inn. In St. George’s Lane, near the Old Bailey, -was an Inn of Chancery, whence the Society, Stow tells us, moved to ‘a -common hostelry, called of the sign Our Lady Inne, not far from -Clement’s Inne, and which they hold by the name of the New Inn, paying -therefor £6 rent, for more cannot be gotten of them, and much less will -they be put from it.’ (See p. 40.) - -This ‘New Inn,’ which lay west of Clement’s Inn, in Wych Street, has -also disappeared. Here Sir Thomas More studied prior to his being -admitted to Lincoln’s Inn. - -Next to Serjeants’ Inn in Chancery Lane, and adjoining the garden of -Clifford’s Inn, stood the House of the Converted Jews, founded by Henry -III., in place of a Jew’s house forfeited to him (1233). - -There were gathered a great number of converted Jews and Infidels, who -were ‘ordayned and appointed, under an honest rule of life, sufficient -maintenance,’ and who lived under a learned Christian appointed to -govern them. As was the case, however, with the similar House of -Converts founded by Henry at Oxford, when all Jews were banished from -the Kingdom in 1290, the number of converts naturally decayed, and the -House was accordingly annexed by Patent to William Burstall, Clerk, -Custos Rotulorum, or Keeper of the Rolls of the Chancery, in 1377. ‘This -first Maister of the Rolles was sworne in Westminster Hall at the Table -of Marble Stone; since the which time, that house hath beene commonly -called the Rolles in Chancerie Lane.’ So the invaluable Stow, who adds -that Jewish converts continued none the less to be relieved there. - -Henry III. also built for his Converts ‘a fair Church,’ afterwards ‘used -and called the Chapel for the custody of Rolls and Records of -Chancerie.’ The fabric of Rolls Chapel, after being frequently rebuilt, -had ceased to have any merit. It was demolished when the recent -additions to the Record Office were made (1895), and when to the vast -Gothic Tower, designed by Pennethorne, the section facing Chancery Lane -was added. This building, in spite of its feeble minarets and decadent, -nondescript ornamentation, often, by virtue of its mass and handsome -material, looks extremely effective, especially when London sun, shining -through London mist, dimly suffuses its pearly domes with delicate -pinks and yellows. - -Upon the site of Rolls Chapel a Museum of equal size has been built, -which the present Deputy Keeper of the Records, Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte, -has made so interesting a feature of our National Archives. In this -Museum of the Public Record Office, three large monuments, once in the -Rolls Chapel, have been re-erected, two of them in their former -positions. They are of great interest and beauty. Chief among them is -the Tomb of Dr. Young, who was Dean of York and Master of the Rolls -(died 1516). This beautiful terra-cotta monument is ascribed to -Torrigiano, who made the splendid tomb in Henry VII.’s Chapel. Here, -too, are the monuments, in alabaster, of Sir Richard Allington (died -1561), and of Edward Bruce, Lord Kinlosse, Master of the Rolls, who died -in 1611. - -Amongst other Masters who were buried in Rolls Chapel, Pennant mentions -Sir John Strange, but without the quibbling line-- - - ‘Here lies an honest lawyer, that is Strange.’ - -Bishop Butler’s ‘Sermons at the Rolls’ and the fame of Bishop Atterbury -and Bishop Burnet keep alive the memory of the office of ‘Preacher at -the Rolls,’ an office held also by the late Dr. Brewer, whose name is -famous in the annals of historical research. As to Bishop Burnet, the -story runs that, in 1684, he preached here upon the text, ‘Save me from -the lion’s mouth, for Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns’ -(Ps. xxii. 21), and was promptly dismissed for a sermon supposed to be -levelled at the Royal Arms. - -Seven panels of heraldic glass have been transferred from the old Chapel -to the new windows of the Museum, and some fragments of a fine chancel -arch of the thirteenth century, found in the East wall, are there -preserved. In the Museum a series of Documents of historical interest -are exhibited, ranging from Domesday Book to the Coronation Roll of -Queen Victoria. One of the most interesting, perhaps, of the many -autographs is the suggestive signature of Guy Fawkes before and after he -had been examined by torture.[78] - -In view of the origin of this House of the Rolls, it is interesting to -note that Jews began to be admitted to the Bar at the beginning of last -century. In 1833 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Francis - -[Illustration: CLIFFORD’S INN - -SHOWING the gloomy little Hall reconstructed in 1797 (see p. 178), a -corner of the shady garden, and the fretted lantern of St. Dunstan’s -Church in Fleet Street.] - -Goldsmid was ‘called’ at Lincoln’s Inn, and Sir George Jessel in 1847. -The latter, in 1873, succeeded Lord Romilly as Master of the Rolls, and -Keeper of those Records which are stored upon the site of the House -founded for the maintenance of converted Jews and Infidels. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -THE SERJEANTS AND SERJEANTS’ INNS - - -Like so much of the history of the Lawyers and their Inns, the origin of -the Serjeants and the steps by which they obtained a monopoly of -pleading are buried in obscurity. It is, at any rate, certain that the -Serjeants-at-Law, or _Servientes ad legem_, early acquired the exclusive -right of audience in the Court of Common Pleas, wherein were determined -all matters between subject and subject, where the King was not a party. - -The Serjeants-at-Law had secured a monopoly of pleading; but, as -business increased in the Courts, they found themselves unable to deal -with it. In 1292, therefore, they were empowered, by an ordinance of -Edward I., to select from the students and apprentices of the Common Law -some of those best qualified to transact affairs in the King’s Courts -(_cf._ p. 6). It is not clear who these students and apprentices were, -but they were destined in the course of time to supersede the body of -Counsel whom they were called in to aid. - -‘Apprentice’ is a term that smacks of the Guild, and though in the -fifteenth century it came to be applied to the Serjeants themselves, it -must originally have denoted the students who sat at the feet of some -recognized teacher of the Law. But, in truth, we have not enough -evidence to enable us to trace the developments of the relationship -between the Serjeants, the Students, and the Inns. The fact that the -Serjeants, or Doctors of Law, upon attaining that degree, entirely -severed their connection with their Inns, and that it was the Masters, -and not they, who formed the governing bodies of the Inns, may be -significant of some early difference or antagonism between the original -Serjeants-and Apprentices-at-Law. - -The custom of tolling a newly-elected Serjeant out of Lincoln’s Inn by -ringing the chapel bell--‘a half-humorous, half-serious reminder that -hence-forward he was dead to the Society’--may be considered to support -this view.[79] - -The obscurity of this question is enhanced, not only by the lack of -documentary evidence, but also by the fact that the technical terms of -the profession had no stationary significance. _Apprenticii ad legem_ -was a fluid phrase; it came to be applied to the genuine junior -apprentices of the law in the Inns of Chancery, to the senior students -who instructed them, as well as to those who had completed the eight -years’ curriculum of the University, and, having passed their -examinations, were admitted to practise as advocates in Court, to the -very Serjeants and Judges themselves. - -We have seen how the topography of the Inns of Court--and of London -itself--is bound up with the history of the Crusades and the Order of -Templars who sprang from them. It is supposed that the Order of -Serjeants, these Professors of the Common Law, who acquired the -exclusive privilege of practising in the Court of Common Pleas, imitated -the second degree of the Old Templars, and derived their name from the -‘free serving brethren’ of the Order of the Temple. The word Serjeant is -said to translate the Latin _Servientes_, and the King’s -Servants-at-Law, _Servientes domini Regis ad legem_, were, it is -suggested, the lineal descendants of the _fratres servientes_, the -servant brethren, of the Knights Templars. The peculiar dress of the -‘Order of the Coif’ is advanced as an argument in support of this -fascinating pedigree. The Serjeants-at-Law marked their rank, it is -suggested, by wearing red caps, under which, as in the East, a linen -cap, or coif, was worn. Did the Templars bring this habit from the East, -and were their first ‘servants’ Mohammedan prisoners? At any rate, the -coif proper was a kind of white hood made of lawn (later of silk), which -completely covered the head like a wig, and whilst the later black patch -represented the cornered cap worn over it, the true vestigial -representative of the coif is to be found in the white border of the -lawyer’s wig.[80] A connection may be traced between the white linen -thrown over the head of a Serjeant on his creation and the white mantle -in which the novice was clothed when, in the Chapel of St. Anne, he was -initiated into the Order of the Knights Templars, and declared a free, -equal, elected and admitted brother. - -In this connection it is at least noteworthy that the Serjeants had a -cult for St. Thomas of Acre (Thomas à Becket), and that in the Chapel of -their patron Saint, adjoining the Old Hall of the Temple, they used to -pray before going to St. Paul’s to select their pillars. The Knights of -St. Thomas in Palestine were placed at Acre under the Templars in the -Holy Land, and a Chapel dedicated to St. Thomas of Acre was built for -them. Can it be that the Serjeants trace from the subservient Order of -the Knights of St. Thomas? - -There is some trace of an ecclesiastical origin, not only in their -‘long, priest-like robes,’ which Fortescue describes, ‘with a cape, -furred with white lamb about their shoulders, and thereupon a hood with -two labels,’ but also in their performance of a rite, which none but -priests might offer, in a solemn ceremony that lasted down to the -Reformation. When feasts were held in the Temple Hall, the Serjeants, in -the middle of the feast, went to the Chapel of St. Thomas of Acre in -Cheapside, built by Thomas à Becket’s sister after his canonization, and -there offered; and then to St. Paul’s, where they offered at St. -Erkenwald’s shrine; then into the body of the Church. Here they were -appointed to their pillars by the Steward of the feast, to which they -then returned. - -The theory has, indeed, been advanced that the coif was a device for -covering the tonsure of ecclesiastical pleaders after clerics had been -forbidden to practise in the secular Courts. But this explanation seems -too ingenious. - -The ceremony of choosing a pillar at St. Paul’s, referred to above, -points to the ancient practice of the Lawyers taking each his station at -one of the pillars in the Cathedral, and there waiting for clients. ‘The -legal sage stood, it is said, with pen in hand, and dexterously noted -down the particulars of every man’s case on his knee.’[81] - -It long remained the custom of the Law-Courts to adjourn at noon. Then -the Serjeants would repair to the ‘Parvis,’ or porch, of St. Paul’s to -meet their clients in consultation. And this practice is alluded to by -Chaucer: - - ‘A serjeant of the law ware and wise, - That often had y been at the “Parvise,” - There was also, full rich of excellence. - Discreet he was, and of great reverence; - He seemed such, his words were so wise. - Justice he was full often in assize, - By patent and by pleine commissioun.’ - _‘Prologue,’ Canterbury Tales._ - -Whatever the exact history of their lineage, the trained lawyers who -were summoned to attend and advise the King in Council did, undoubtedly, -become a recognized Order, styled _Servientes Regis ad Legem_--King’s -Serjeants-at-Law. From their ranks the Judges were always supposed to be -chosen. The old formula at Westminster, when a new Serjeant approached -the Judges, was, ‘I think I see a brother.’ Down to the time of the -abolition of the Order, a lawyer, when nominated a Judge, first had to -get himself admitted a Serjeant, and to enter the Order of the Coif. -This was always an expensive step. - -Fortescue enlarges upon the cost which attended the ceremonies, when one -of the persons ‘pitched upon by the Lord Chief Justice with the advice -and consent of all the Judges’ was summoned in virtue of the King’s Writ -to take upon him the state and degree of a Serjeant-at-Law. - -His own bill for the gold rings he was obliged to present--_fidei -symbolo_--on such an occasion to the Princes, Dukes, Archbishops and -Judges who were present at the ‘sumptuous feast, like that at a -Coronation, lasting seven days, which the new-created Serjeants were -called upon to give,’ amounted to £50. There is record of a Serjeants’ -Feast held in the Inner Temple, 1555, which cost over £660. These feasts -were held at first at Ely Place, Lambeth Palace, or St. John’s Priory at -Clerkenwell. Afterwards they took place in the Hall of the Inn of which -the new Serjeant had been a Student. The whole House contributed to the -expense of this degree. The elaborate ceremonies which attended the -creation of a new Serjeant-at-Law are given at length by Dugdale -(chapter xli. _et seq._). It would be out of place to recount them here. - -It has been humorously, though not quite accurately, observed that the -Bar ‘went into mourning for Queen Anne, and has remained in mourning -ever since.’ The sombre robes now worn by the English Bar may well be -thought to symbolize the dignity of the law and the gravity of the -profession, as the ‘spotless ermine’ typifies the integrity and -independence of the Judges. But, as was the case with the hoods and -gowns of other degrees in other Universities, or the black _felze_ of a -gondola at Venice, brilliancy and splendour of colour was the original -note, and dulness was the result of restriction. The robes which the -Serjeants wore varied from time to time, and with different occasions. - -In the seventeenth century Dugdale observes that their robes still in -some degree resembled ‘those of the Justices of either Bench, and were -of murrey, black furred with white, and scarlet. But the robe which they -usually wear at their Creation only is of murrey and mouse-colour,’ with -a suitable hood and the coif. - -Arrangements were made about 1635 between the Judges and Serjeants, in -accordance with which gowns of black cloth were to be worn for -term-time; violet cloth for Court or holidays; scarlet in procession to -St. Paul’s, or when dining in state at the Guildhall or attending the -Sovereign’s presence at the House of Lords, and black silk for trials at -_Nisi Prius_. But the fashions and colours were always changing. The -violet gown, which superseded the mustard and murrey worn in Court -during term-time, gave occasion for Jekyll’s witty rhyme, when a dull -Serjeant was wearying the Court with a prosy argument: - - ‘The Serjeants are a grateful race; - Their dress and language show it; - Their purple robes from Tyre we trace; - Their arguments go to it.’ - -It was the militant Chief Justice Willes who, ten years after the ’45, -first endeavoured to secure the abolition of the exclusive right of the -Serjeants to practise in the Court of Common Pleas. But their hour had -not yet come. In 1834 a mandate was obtained from William IV. abolishing -the privilege of the Serjeants, but this was set aside by the Privy -Council as being defective in form. At length doom fell upon the old -Order of the Coif, in the shape of an Act of Parliament, 1846, which -threw open the Common Pleas to all counsel indiscriminately. The last -Queen’s Serjeants to be appointed were Serjeants Byles, Channel, Shee, -and Wrangham, in 1857. By the Judicature Act of 1873, which consolidated -the three Courts of Law at Westminster (_See_ Chapter I.) into the High -Court of Justice, the Judges were no longer required to receive the coif -on their nomination to the bench. The knell of the Serjeants’ doom had -now rung. Five years later their Inn in Chancery Lane and the -Brotherhood were dissolved. - -When the mere pillars of St. Paul’s had ceased to be regarded as -satisfactory ‘chambers,’ the Serjeants, like the law-apprentices, took -possession of Inns for the purposes of practice and residence. These -Inns remained independent bodies, and never became, like the Inns of -Chancery, subject to the Inns of Court. - -Scrope’s Inn, adjoining the Palace of the Bishops of Ely, and opposite -the Church of St. Andrew in Holborn, was the first abode of the -Serjeants. Its site was long marked by Scrope’s Court in Holborn. It -took its name from the Le Scropes, who rose to eminence under Edward I. -Two brothers, Sir Henry and Sir Geoffrey, both became Chief Justice of -King’s Bench, in 1317 and 1324 respectively. Richard Le Scrope, son of -the former, was created Baron Scrope of Bolton, and was twice Chancellor -of England. He died in 1403, whilst in residence at his Inn. Scrope’s -Inn would thus naturally be a centre round which the trained professors -of the law would congregate, as round Lincoln’s Inn and Grey’s Inn, to -help in the transaction of the business of the Justice of King’s Bench. -It then became an Inn for Judges and Serjeants-at-Law, and so continued -until, in 1498, it was abandoned. For the lawyers were concentrating -upon the southern end of Chancellor’s Lane and Fleet Street. The -Serjeants took up their residence in Serjeants’ Inn (Fleet Street) at -least as early as the reign of Henry VI., and probably much earlier -(Dugdale). This Inn is connected with the Inner Temple by a passage past -the little garden once in the possession of Sir Edward Coke, and -afterwards known as the ‘Benchers’ Garden.’ But the principal entrance -is from Fleet Street, through a pair of handsome iron gates, in which -are wrought the arms of the Inn, a dove and a serpent. - -The Gate House forms the offices of the Norwich Union Fire and Life -Assurance Society. The whole Inn was burnt down in the Great Fire, and -was afterwards rebuilt (1670) by means of voluntary subscriptions on -the part of the Serjeants. But upon the expiration of the lease then -granted to them, the Serjeants abandoned their Inn, with its fine -chapel, hall, and houses that surrounded the Court, and united with -their brethren in Chancery Lane. The Inn was afterwards pulled down and -rebuilt from the designs of Adam, the architect of the Adelphi, for -private houses and Assurance offices. The ‘elegant building,’ as Herbert -calls it, in the classical style, which was erected on the site of the -old Hall, formed at first the offices of the Amicable Assurance Company, -and is now occupied by the Church of England Sunday School Institute. -The quiet quadrangle is surrounded by pleasing eighteenth-century -houses, with decorated porches and fine iron-work. Some of them have -extinguishers for the links in front of their porches. Loftie noted the -initials “S. I.” and the date 1669 upon one survivor of the Serjeants’ -rebuilding. - -The Inn, which the Serjeants joined when they left Fleet Street, had -been occupied by their brethren since the end of the fourteenth century. -But, though leased to their representatives by the Bishops of Ely, who -held the freehold, or their lessees, it was not called Serjeants’ Inn -until 1484. Prior to that date it was known as Faryngdon’s Inn in -Chancellor’s Lane. Here all the Judges, as having been Serjeants-at-Law -before their elevation to the Bench, had chambers assigned to them. - -A plain, unpleasing, stuccoed, Early Victorian building now faces -Chancery Lane, and drops as a screen of ugliness across the old brick -buildings within. This we owe to Sir Robert Smirke, who rebuilt the Inn -(1837-1838), with the exception of the old Hall, which was ‘approached -by a handsome flight of stone steps and balustrade.’ So Herbert, who -says that in his day (1804) all the buildings were modern. He describes -the Inn as then consisting of two small Courts, the principal entrance -from Chancery Lane fronting the Hall, and the second Court communicating -with Clifford’s Inn by a small passage. As there is an exit from -Clifford’s Inn to Fetter Lane, it is thus possible to pass from Chancery -Lane to Fetter[82] Lane without going into Fleet Street. When, in 1877, -the Brotherhood of Serjeants dissolved, they sold the Inn for some -£60,000 to Serjeant Cox, and divided the proceeds, but gave the -twenty-six valuable portraits of their predecessors, that had adorned -the walls of the Hall, to the National Portrait Gallery. The tiny Hall, -the single, narrow Court of plain stuccoed houses, and some trees and -turf behind some railings, remain to remind us of the Serjeants’ Inn and -the Serjeants’ Garden, where Lord Keeper Guildford would take his ease, -and where the great roll of English Judges have had chambers. But the -beautiful old stained glass windows of the Hall and Chapel, which bore -the arms of the various members, together with the heraldic device of -the Order--an ibis _proper_ on a shield _or_--were removed by the -purchaser to his residence of Millhill, where he built a chamber, the -facsimile of the Hall, for their reception. - -Such is the story of the Inns of Court, which have gone on from strength -to strength, and of the Inns of Chancery and the Serjeants’ Inns, which -have almost vanished, together with the Societies which made them -famous, from off the changing face of London. It is a story which, -though briefly told, and told by a layman who makes no claim to -originality of material, can hardly fail to be of interest to those who -are alive to the charm of the old things of the Capital. - -It brings before us, not only the vision of the great Justiciars who -transacted the business of the King’s Courts, of the great Lawyers who -built up the mighty fabric of English Law, and the great Judges who -defended the rights and liberties and progress of the people, but also -many of the greatest names in literature and architecture. The precincts -of the Temple remind us of the Order of the Red-Cross Knights, and near -at hand are the vacated Inns of that other Order which has been likewise -dissolved. For we see no more, save in the light of imagination, either -the mail-clad figures of the Templars in their white cloaks stamped with -the red cross, or the Serjeants in their white lawn coifs and -parti-coloured gowns, wending their way from the Temple Hall to the -shrine of St. Thomas. - -The silver tongue of Harcourt is mute as the impassioned eloquence of -Burke and Sheridan, yet these buildings seem to echo with their voices, -with the sonorous declamation of Dr. Johnson, or the witty stammer of -Charles Lamb. There, in Gray’s Inn, we still seem to see the figure of -Francis Bacon, pacing the walks with Raleigh, talking of trees and -politics and high adventure; from the Gateway of Lincoln’s Inn, and past -the red bricks laid by Ben Jonson, when Wolsey was Cardinal, the form -of Sir Thomas More emerges; and across the way the thin, alert figure of -Sir Edward Coke steps briskly from his tiny garden into Old Serjeants’ -Inn. - -Here Dickens talks with Thackeray, and Blackstone scowls at Goldsmith; -there, in the Middle Temple Hall, Queen Elizabeth leads the dance with -Sir Christopher Hatton, and the rafters ring with the music of -Shakespeare’s voice and Shakespeare’s poetry. And the buildings -themselves are the works of a noble army of English Architects, -admirable creations and memorials of the genius of Sir Christopher Wren, -Inigo Jones, Adam, Hardwick, Street, and of the unknown builders of -Norman, Gothic, and Elizabethan things. These facts once known, not all -the dirt and fog of London air, not all the noise and distraction of -City business and legal affairs, can ever again wholly obscure the -charm, the romance, the historical and literary associations, which -haunt these homes of so many great English Lawyers, Writers, and -Administrators. - - - - - APPENDIX - - - The following is a list of the chief authorities referred to in the - foregoing pages: - - ADDISON, C. G.: The Knights Templars. - BAYLISS, T.: The Temple Church. - BEDWELL, C. E. A.: Quarterly Review, 1908. - BELLOT, H.: The Inner and Middle Temple. - DOUTHWAITE: Gray’s Inn, 1886. - DUGDALE, WILLIAM: Origines Juridicales, 1671. - FLETCHER, J.: The Pension Book of Gray’s Inn, 1901. - FORTESCUE, SIR JOHN: De Laudibus Legum. - GOUGH: Sepulchral Monuments. - HERBERT, WILLIAM: Antiquities of the Inns of Court and Chancery, 1804. - INDERWICK, F. C., K.C.: Calendar of the Inner Temple Records. - KELLY, J.: Short History of the English Bar. - LEIGH, GERARD: Accedence of Armorie, 1653. - Lincoln’s Inn, The Black Books of, 1897. - LOFTIE, W. J.: Inns of Court and Chancery, 1895. - MANNINGHAM, JOHN, Diary of, 1868. - Minutes of Parliament of the Middle Temple. - PITT-LEWIS, G.: History of the Temple, 1898. - POLLOCK and MAITLAND: History of English Law. - PULLING, ALEXANDER: The Order of the Coif, 1884. - SPEDDING, JAMES: Life and Letters of Francis Bacon. - SPILSBURY, W. H.: Lincoln’s Inn, 1850. - STOW, JOHN: Survey of London, Ed. Kingsford, 1908. - WHEATLEY, H. B.: Literary Landmarks of London. - WILLIAMS, E.: Staple Inn. - - - - -INDEX - - -Abinger, Lord, 103 - -Abram, Messrs., shop, 67 - -Adam, architect, 197, 201 - -Addison, Joseph, 62, 66 - -Ainger, Canon, 59 - -Albert, Prince, 120 - -Alderson, Edward Hall, 94 - -Allington, Sir Richard, 183 - -Ancients. See Benchers - -Anson, Sir William, 72 - -Apprentices at the Law, 5, 6, 9, 12, 17 _ff._, 36, 38, 39, 166, 186-188 - -Ashburton, Lord, 81 - -Ashmole, Elias, 81 - -Asquith, Right Hon. H. H., 93 - -Atterbury, Bishop, 183 - - -Bacon, 136 - Sir Francis, 89, 144-146, 148-152, 155-162 - Sir Nicholas, 146, 153, 156 - -Barebone, Dr., 143 - -Barnard’s Inn, 102, 173-175 - -Barristers, Inner, 11 _ff._ - Outer, or Utter, 11 _ff._ - Roll, 80 - -Bathurst, Lord, 121 - -Beaumont, Francis, 89, 152 - -Benchers, 11 _ff._, 61, 95, 100, 153 - -Bernasconi, 117 - -Bettenham, Jeremy, 161 - -Blackfriars, 108, 109 - -Blackstone, Sir W., 70, 165 - -Boswell, James, 87-89 - -Bolting, 59 - -Bowen, Lord, 72 - -Brewer, Dr., 184 - -Brougham, Lord, 117, 121 - -Burghley, Lord, 142 - -Burke, Edmund, 45, 69 - -Burleigh, Lord, 149 - -Burnet, Bishop, 183, 184 - -Butler, Bishop, 183 - -Butler, Samuel, 57, 163 - -Byllyng, Sir W., 139 - - -Camden, William, 163 - -Campbell, Lord, 81, 93, 121 - Thomas, 126 - -Canning, George, 93, 121 - -Carew, Sir Randolph, 98 - -Carey Street, 177, 178 - -Chancery Lane (= Chancellor’s Lane = New Street), 1, 8, 106, - 107, 122, 128, 196-199 - Old Temple in, 29 - -Chapman, George, 163 - -Chaucer, Geoffrey, 37, 64, 104, 105, 191 - -Chelmsford, Lord, 103 - -Cheshire Cheese, the, 69 - -Chester Inn, 180 - -Chichester, Bishop of, 106, 107 - -Child’s Bank, 66 - -Churches, Round, 28, 29, 47 - -Cibber, Colley, 103 - -City, the, boundaries of, 6, 7 - -Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, 80 - -Clement’s Inn, 95, 177 - -Clergy excluded from the Courts, 4, 8 - -Cleveland, John, 163 - -Clifford’s Inn, 5, 167, 176, 178-180, 198 - Kentish Mess, 180 - -Cobbett, William, 163 - -Cockburn, Sir Alexander, 81 - -Coif, the, 192, 195 - Order of the, 188, 189 - -Coke, Sir Edward, 87, 92, 98, 179, 196, 201 - Lord, 146 - -Coleridge, Lord, 72 - -Colman, George, 121 - -Colonies, the, and the Inns of Court, 78-80 - -‘Comedy of Errors,’ the, 150 - -Coney Garth, 107, 111 - -Congreve, William, 80 - -Connaught, H.R.H. the Duke of, 163 - -Converts, House of the, 181 _ff._ - -Courts, the Civil, 3, 4 - -Coverley, Sir Roger de, 162 - -Cowper, Lord Chancellor, 81 - William, 73, 104 - -Cox, Serjeant, 199 - -Cromwell, Oliver, 113, 114, 130 - Thomas, 163 - -Crusades, 188 - influence of, 2 - -Cursitor Street, 156 - - -Davey, Lord, 121 - -Day, Thomas, 60 - -Denys, Hugh, 140 - -Despencer, Hugh le, 36 - -Devereux Court, 35, 82 - -Devil Tavern, the, 66 - -Devil’s Own, the, 129 _ff._ - -Dickens, Charles, 126-128, 169-171, 176 - quoted, 46, 82, 83 - -Disraeli, Benjamin, 121 - -Donne, Dr., 114 _ff._ - -Drake, Sir Francis, 78 - - -Eldon, Lord Chancellor, 81, 131, 134 - -Ellenborough, Lord, 93, 94, 134 - -Ellesmere, Earl of, 129 - -Ely, Bishops of, 197 - -Ely Place, 171 - -Embankment, the, 67, 74, 94 - -Erskine, Lord, 121, 133 - -Essex House, 35 - Water Gate, 84 - Inn, 35 - Street, 29, 35 - -Evelyn, John, 81 - -Eyre, Sir James, 146 - - -Faryngdon’s Inn, 198 - -Feasts and Bevels. See Inns of Court - -Fetter Lane, 178, 198 - -Fielding, Henry, 62, 73 - -Finch, Sir Heneage, 99, 100 - -Fire of London, the, 45, 47, 57, 74, 96, 103, 179 - of 1678, 59, 73, 81, 96 - -Fitchett’s Field, 30 - -Fitzgerald, Edward, quoted, 96 - Percy, 176 - -Fleet Street, 1, 2, 5, 9, 29-31, 44, 65, 102, 178, 196 - No. 16, 45 - No. 17, 45 - -Ford, John, 80 - -Fresco by Watts, 120 - -Furnival’s Inn, 122, 175, 176 - - -Gainsborough, 113 - -Gardiner, Bishop, 146 - -Gascoigne, George, 163 - Sir William, 163 - -Gauden, Dr. John, 58 - -Gibbons, Grinling, 102 - -Gifford, Robert, M.R., 81 - -Gladstone, W. E., 121 - -Goldsmith, Oliver, 62, 65, 69-72, 104, 163 - -Goldsmith’s grave, 71 - -Goldsmith, Sir Francis, 185 - -‘_Gorboduc_,’ 99 - -Gordon Riots, 131, 132 - -Grant, Sir William, 133 - -Gray, Earl de, 108 - -Gray’s Inn, 6, 70, 87, 89, 108, 135 _ff._, 195 - Ancients of, 153 - and Barnard’s Inn, 173-175 - and Francis Bacon, 148 _ff._ - and Queen Elizabeth, 146-152 - and Shakespeare, 148, 150 - and Staple Inn, 172 - arms of, 160 - buildings of, 142 _ff._ - Chapel, 144, 154, 155 - Field Court, 159 - Fields, 136 - Fullwood’s Rents, 162 - Gardens, 159 _ff._ - Gateways, 143, 144 - Hall, 144 _ff._ - Lane, 136, 143 - Library, 144, 145 - masques and plays at, 148 _ff._ - moots received at, 21 - origin of, 137-142 - pensions and pensioners of, 153 - Raymond Buildings, 159 - Road, 145, 158 - rookery in, 161 - South Square, 143 _ff._, 157, 159 - Square, 143, 155, 156 - surroundings of, 135, 136 - Verulam Buildings, 158, 159 - Walks, 162 - -Grenville, George, 93 - -Grey Friars, the, 137 - -Greys, the, of Wilton, 137 _ff._ - -Griffith, Henry, 147 - -Grimthorpe, Lord, 112, 118 - - -Hale, Sir Matthew, 98, 118, 167, 179 - -Hallam, Henry, 80 - -Halls of the Inns, 11 _ff._ - -Hampden, John, 162 - -Harcourt, Sir Simon, 98 - -Hardwick, Philip, 118, 119, 128 - -Hatton, Sir C., 25 - -Havelock, Sir Henry, 81 - -Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 135 - -Heath, C. J., 130 - -Heber, Bishop, 116 - -Herring, Archbishop, 116 - -Hogarth, William, 76, 104, 118, 126 - -Holborn, 8, 131, 135, 144, 195 - Bars, 6, 7, 29, 31 - Bridge, 108 - -Hooker, bust of, 55 - Dr. John, 58 - -Hullock, Sir John, 146 - - -Inner Temple. See Temple Lane, 87, 89, 92 - -Inns of Chancery, 9, 18 - dissolution of, 167 - monopolized by attorneys, 167 - origin of, 165 _ff._ - relation of Inns of Court to, 166-168. - See Barnard’s Inn, Clement’s Inn, Clifford’s Inn, Furnival’s Inn, - Lyon’s Inn, New Inn, Staple Inn, Strand Inn, Thavie’s Inn - -Inns of Court, 61-64, 75, 106, 142 - and the Colonies, 79, 80 - a University of Law, 8-11, 16 - an aristocratic University, 16, 17 - buildings of, 73 - degrees, discipline, and customs of, 11-26 - Feastings, Revels, and Post-Revels, 13, 22-26, 77, 98, 117, 192, 193 - Guilds of Study, 9, 10, 17 - Halls, 23-26 - homes of literature, 19 _ff._ - Irish Law-students at the Inns of Court, 20 - masques and plays performed at, 24-26, 65, 77, 89, 148 _ff._, 192 - origin of, 2 _ff._ - Parliaments of, 153, 154 - position of, 163, 164 - relation of, to Inns of Chancery, 165-168 - Volunteers, 129 _ff._ - -Ireton, Commissary, 130 - - -Jeffreys, Lord Chancellor, 55, 80, 101 - -Jessel, Sir George, 185 - -Jews, House of the Converted, 181 _ff._ - -Johnson, Dr., 62, 65-67, 69, 87-89, 173 - -Jones, Inigo, 45, 114, 115, 122, 127, 175 - Lieutenant-General, 130 - Sir William, 60 - -Jonson, Ben, 66, 112, 113, 142 - - -Kenealy, Dr., 163 - -Kentish Mess (Clifford’s Inn), 180 - -King Charles I., 25, 76, 99, 129, 130, 146, 152 - Charles II., 127, 141, 146 - Edward I., 33 - Ordinance of, 4, 186 - Edward II., 34-36 - Edward VII., 85 - George II., 98 - George III., 133 - Henry II., 30 - Henry III., 33, 181 - Ordinance of, 8 - Henry VII., 111 - Henry VIII., 112 - James I., 40, 89, 100, 136 - patent of, 41 - James II., 146 - John, 33 - William III., 98 - -King’s Bench Walk, 94 - -Kingsley, Charles, 121 - -Kinlosse, Lord, 183 - -Knights Hospitallers (Order of St. John), 34-36, 39, 40, 47, 58, 98 - -Knights Templars. See Templars, Knights - - -Lamb, Charles, 29, 59, 65, 82, 87, 89-95, 159 - -Lambeth Palace, 112 - -Lancaster, Thomas, Earl of, 35, 39, 40, 110 - -Law Courts, the, 1, 3, 8, 30, 118, 177, 178 - -Leicester, Earl of, 91 - -Leigh, Gerard, 99 - -Lincoln, Earl of, 107 _ff._ - -Lincoln’s Inn, 6, 20, 29, 107 _ff._, 167 - Buildings, 111 _ff._ - Chapel, 113-117 - Chaplain of, 114-116 - custom at, 187 - Fields, 122-128, 131 - No. 13 (Soane Museum), 124-126 - fresco, by Watts, 120, 121 - Gateway, 111-113, 130 - Library, 113, 118 - New Hall, 118-122 - Square, 122 - Old Buildings, 113 - Hall, 117, 118 - origin of, 107-111 - Revels at, 117 - Stone Buildings, 118, 128, 129 - -Linge, Bernard van, 116 - -Lockwood, Sir Frank, 94, 121 - -London County Council, 45, 67 - -London, growth of, 1, 136 - -Louvres, 23, 24, 76, 117 - -Lovell, Sir Thomas, 111, 112 - -Lushington, Stephen, 94 - -Lyon’s Inn, 176 - -Lyte, Sir Henry Maxwell, 183 - -Lyttleton, Edward, Lord, 92, 130 - Sir Thomas, 92, 98 - - -Macaulay, Lord, 157 - -Mackworth, Dr. John, 173 - -Macnaghten, Lord, 121 - -Mandeville, Geoffrey, effigy of, 54 - -Manningham, John, diary of, 77 - -Mansfield, Lord, C.J., 81, 103, 121, 131 - -Masque of Flowers, the, 152 - -Masques and Plays, 24-26, 65, 89, 148 _ff._ - -Matthews, Sir Philip, 141 - -Maule, Sir John, 93 - -Mercers’ Company, the, 175 - -Micklethwaite, Dr., 58 - -Middle Temple. See Temple, Middle - Lane, 67, 74 - -Midsummer Night’s Dream, 148 - -Milford Lane, 84 - -Molyneux Globes, 79 - -Moots, 11 _ff._ - -More, Sir Thomas, 122, 175, 181 - -Museum, Sir John Soane, 124-126 - Record Office, 183, 184 - - -Nethersale, John, 118 - -Neville, Sir Thomas, 142 - -New Inn, 40, 181 - -Norths, the, 81 - -Norton, Thomas, 65, 99 - - -O’Connell, Daniel, 20, 121 - -‘Old Curiosity Shop,’ the, 126-128 - -Ossulston, Manor of, 137 - -Overbury, Sir Thomas, 80 - - -Parvis, the, of St. Paul’s, 191 - -Paston Letters, the, 139 - -Paulet, Sir Amias, 66 - -Pembroke, Earl of, 35, 36 - Earls of, effigies of, 53 - -Penn, William, 121 - -Perceval, 121 - -Petyt, Sylvester, 102 - William, 102 - -Pitt, William, 113, 121 - -Plays. See Inns of Court, Masques - -Plowden, Edmund, 80 - Monument, 56 - -Poland, Sir Harry, 101 - -Pollocks, the, 81, 100 - -Portpool, Manor of, 137, 140, 141 - Market, 171 - -Portsmouth, Duchess of, 127 - Street, 127 - -Post-Revels. See Inns of Court, Feasts, etc. - -Praed, W. M., 69 - -Prudential Assurance Company, 169, 170, 172, 175, 176 - -Prynne, John, 25 - William, 117, 121 - -Pym, John, 77, 163 - - -Queen Anne, 98 - Caroline, 98 - Elizabeth, 25, 78, 146-152 - Mary, 98 - Victoria, 6, 119, 184 - -Quincey, Thomas de, 80 - - -Raleigh, Sir Walter, 78, 160 - -Raymond, Lord, 146 - -Rayner, C. J., 121 - -Readers, 12 _ff._ - -Readerships, revived, 20 - -Readings, 11 _ff._ - -Record Office, the Public, 80, 179, 182-185 - Museum of the, 183, 184 - -Red Cross Knights. _See_ Templars Lion Fields, 143 - -Revels. See Inns of Court - -Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 69 - -Robes of the Bar, 193, 194 - -Rogers, Samuel, 93 - -Rolls Chapel, 182-185 - Monuments, 183 - Master of the, 182 _ff._ - -Romilly, Sir Samuel, 132, 136 - -Roo, John, 150 - -Rupert, Prince, 100 - -Russell, Lord, 72, 121 - - -Sackville, Thomas, 65, 99 - -Savoy, the, 36 - -Scott, Sir G., 118 - -Scrope’s Inn, 108, 195 - -Scropes, Le, the, 108, 195, 196 - -Selden, John, 87, 93, 167, 179 - grave of, 55 - -Serjeants, the, 12, 13, 186 _ff._ - Abolition of the Order of, 194, 195 - the, at St. Paul’s, 190, 191 - Feasts, 192, 193 - Inn (Chancery Lane), 178, 179, 197-199 - Inn (Fleet Street), 92, 196, 197 - Inns, 12, 195 _ff._ - Robes of the, 193, 194 - -Shadwell, William, 80 - -Shakespeare, William, 42, 43, 75, 148, 150 - at the Temple, 24 - ‘Twelfth Night,’ 77, 78 - -Shene, Convent of, 141 - -Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 20 - -Shirley, James, 153 - -Shoe Lane, 108 - -Sidney, Sir Philip, 162 - -Skipworth, W., 139 - -Smirke, Sir Robert, 198 - Sydney, 96 - -Soane, Sir John, Museum, 124-126 - -Solicitors excluded from the Inns of Court, 166 - -Somers, Lord Chancellor, 81 - -Somerset, Earl of, 152 - House, 181 - -Southey, Robert, 163 - -Spedding, James, 96, 149, 151, 160 - -Spenser, Edmund, 68, 69 - -St. Anne, Chapel of. See Temple - -St. Dunstan’s Church, 178 - -St. George’s Inn. See New Inn - -St. James’s Palace, 112 - -St. John, Oliver, 130 - Order of. See Knights Hospitallers - -St. Paul’s Cathedral, 56, 67, 137 - the Serjeants and, 189-191, 195 - -St. Thomas, Chapel of. See Temple - Knights of, 190 - -Staple Inn, 87, 137, 169-173 - -Stapleton Inn, 35 - -Steele, Richard, 66 - -Stowell, Lord, 81 - -Strand Inn, 180 - the, 35, 177 - -Strange, Sir John, 183 - -Street, 30, 178 - Architect, 1 - -Sundials (Temple), 72, 73, 81 _n._, 95, 96 - -Swift, Dean, 66 - - -Taylor, Sir Robert, 128 - Tom, 90, 91 - -Templars, the Knights, 1, 2, 27 _ff._, 48, 98, 106, 171 - and the Serjeants, 188, 189 - badge of the, 31, 32 - customs of, 97 - decadence and dissolution of the Order of the, 33 _ff._ - effigies of, 46, 51-55 - origin of the Order, 27, 28 - settlement in England, 28 _ff._ - -Temple, the, 29, 110 - a place of sanctuary, 60, 61 - attacked by Wat Tyler’s men, 36 - -Temple Bar, 6-8 - Chapel of St. Thomas, 59, 189, 200 - Church, the, 44-59, 71, 74, 97 - Chapel of St. Anne, 48, 189 - dedication of the, 30, 31 - description of, 46-56 - Master of the, 57-59 - Master’s House, 47, 57, 58 - Cloisters, 59, 60 - Flower Show, 94 - Gardens, 6, 42, 43 - buildings, 74 - -Temple, Inner, 6, 37, 86 _ff._ See Clifford’s Inn and Temple, Templars - Benchers’ Garden, 196 - characteristics of the, 86, 87 - charter of the, 40, 41 - Clock Tower, 97 - Cloister Court, 60 - crest of the, 31, 32 - Crown Office Row, 89-91 - Farrar’s Buildings, 89 - Feasts, 192 - Fig-tree Court, 73, 93, 94 - Garden, 94, 95 - gateway, 1, 44, 45 - Gordon Rioters at, 132 - Hall, 38, 59, 65, 76, 96-99, 101 - Harcourt Buildings, 74 - Hare Court, 68, 89, 92, 93, 101 - Johnson’s Buildings, 44, 87 - King’s Bench Walk, 87, 91, 102-104 - Library, 96, 101, 102 - Mitre Court, 89, 92 - Buildings, 91, 92 - Paper Buildings, 89 _ff._, 93, 102 - Parliament, 18 - rebuilding of, 96 - Revels at, 98 _ff._ - solicitors excluded from, 166 - sundial, Temple Gardens, 95 - Tanfield Court, 97 - Treasurer’s House, 97 - Irishmen at the, 20 - Lane, 102 - lawyers first mentioned in, 37, 38 - -Temple, Middle, 6, 37 _ff._, 45, 64 _ff._, 131. See Temple, Templars - Brick Court, 68 _ff._, 90 - sundial in, 72 - Charter of, 40, 41 - crest of the, 31, 32 - Elizabethan sailors, 78 - Elm Court, 71 - Buildings, 74 - Essex Court, 81 - sundial, 81 _n._ - Fountain, 75, 82-84 - (or Hall) Court, 76 - Garden Court, 70, 84 - Gardens, 84 - gateways, 1, 65 _ff._, 74 - Goldsmith Buildings, 44, 71, 89 - Hall, 38, 68, 69, 74 _ff._ - Lamb Building, 60 - Library, 84, 85 - Little Gateway, 82 - New Court, 82 - Parliaments of, 154 - Plowden Buildings, 74, 84 - Pump Court, 73, 74 - sundial in, 73 - Rookery, 71, 72 - Vine Court, 74 - -Temple, New, site of the, 29-31 - Outer, 35 - Refectory of the Priests, 59 - Stairs, 67 - St. Dunstan, 66 - the Old, 171 - Treasure House, 33, 34 - -Temple, ‘Twelfth Night,’ 24 - -Temples (Round Churches of the Templars), 28, 29 - -Thackeray, W. M., quoted, 4, 60-63, 69, 71, 90, 176 - -Thames, Embankment, 67, 74, 94 - River, 9, 29, 30, 67, 68, 74 - -Thavie’s Inn, 5, 39, 176 - -Theobald’s Road, 136, 159 - -Thomson, Archbishop, 116 - -Thurloe, --, 113 - -Thurlow, Edward, Lord Chancellor, 93, 94 - -Titus Gates, 7, 8 - -Torrigiano, 183 - -Turnstiles, the, 123 - -Turton, Sir John, 146 - -Tyler, Wat, Rebellion, 36 - - -Valence, Aymer de, 35, 36 - -Virginia, 78 - - -Walpole, Horace, 121 - -Warburton, Bishop, 116 - -Warren, Samuel, 104 - -Watts, G. F., fresco by, 120, 121 - -Wellesley, Lord, 117 - -Westbury, Lord Chancellor, 21 - -Whitefriars, 29 - -Whitelock, Bulstrode, 130 - -Willes, C.J., 131, 194 - -William IV., mandate of, 194 - -Wine Office Court, 69 - -Wither, George, 121 - -Wolsey, Cardinal, 112, 150 - -Wren, Sir Christopher, 2, 59, 65, 82, 87 _n._, 103 - Temple Bar, 7 - -Wycherley, William, 80 - - -Yelverton, Sir C., 139, 146 - -Young, Dr., 183 - - - THE END - - - BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD - -[Illustration: MAP ACCOMPANYING ‘INNS OF COURT.’ BY GORDON HOME AND -CECIL HEADLAM. (A. AND C. BLACK, LONDON.)] - - -FOOTNOTES: - - [1] ‘Survey of London.’ - - [2] Dugdale, ‘Origines Juridiciales.’ - - [3] Fortescue, ‘De Laudibus Legum.’ - - [4] Bedwell, _Quarterly Review_, October, 1908. - - [5] Strype. - - [6] Pollock and Maitland, ‘History of English Law,’ vol. i., p. 102. - - [7] See my ‘Story of Oxford,’ chap. iv. - - [8] Kelly, ‘Short History of the English Bar.’ - - [9] ‘The Glory of Generosity,’ quoted by Herbert, ‘Aniquities of the - Inns of Court.’ - - [10] Kelly, p. 56. - - [11] Kelly, p. 127. - - [12] Bellot, ‘Inner and Middle Temple,’ p. 36. - - [13] Dugdale. - - [14] MS. cited by Addison, ‘Knights Templars,’ p. 348. - - [15] ‘History of the Temple,’ pp. 64-67. - - [16] See Hutchinson, ‘Minutes of Parliament of Middle Temple,’ vol. - i., p. 12. - - [17] An excellent little brochure on No. 17, Fleet Street, is - published by the L.C.C., and obtainable in ‘Prince Henry’s Council - Chamber.’ - - [18] The site is marked by seven large stone slabs. Outside the north - door of the old Hall stood the Chapel of St. Thomas. It was connected - with the Cloisters, and thereby with the Chapel of St. Anne or with - the present main entrance of the Temple Church. Indications of the old - cloister are traceable in the present Buttery and the ancient chamber - beneath it. The walls of this chamber are of rubble and Kentish rag, - and the ceiling is supported by groined arches. Its floor is on the - same level as that of the ancient Church. There is an open fireplace - of later date. Mr. Inderwick takes this room to have been the old - “Refectory of the Priests.” - - [19] ‘The Temple Church.’ - - [20] _Cf._ ‘The Inns of Court and Chancery’ (W. J. Loftie). - - [21] ‘Origines Juridiciales.’ - - [22] ‘Sepulchral Monuments,’ vol. i., pp. 24, 50. - - [23] Gough, ‘Sepulchral Monuments.’ - - [24] Raised 2 feet in 1908, but otherwise unaltered. - - [25] Can only be visited by obtaining an order. It would be gracious - of the Benchers to relax this restriction. - - [26] Bellot, ‘Inner and Middle Temple.’ - - [27] Thackeray, ‘Pendennis.’ - - [28] ‘Pendennis.’ Before migrating to No. 2, Brick Court, William - Makepeace Thackeray lived at 10, Crown Office Row, probably sharing - chambers, which have since disappeared, with Tom Taylor. - - [29] ‘Middle Temple Records.’ - - [30] ‘Life of Wolsey.’ - - [31] Bellot, p. 269. - - [32] ‘English Humourists.’ - - [33] See Irving, ‘Goldsmith.’ - - [34] Wheatley, ‘Literary Landmarks of London.’ - - [35] Vol. v., p. 231. - - [36] Restored 1903. - - [37] ‘Diary of John Manningham, of the Middle Temple.’ - - [38] _Quarterly Review_, October, 1908; _Green Bag_, April, 1908. - - [39] Upon the seventeenth-century block, which it replaced, there used - to be a sundial, which has disappeared. Perhaps its motto, ‘Vestigia - nulla retrorsum,’ was deemed too generous a warning against entering - upon the perilous paths of litigation. - - [40] Dickens, ‘Martin Chuzzlewit.’ - - [41] Those of Nos. 4 and 5 are attributed to Sir Christopher Wren. - - [42] His portrait, by Van Somer, hangs in the Hall. - - [43] Inderwick, ‘Inner Temple Records,’ vol. ii., p. lxii. - - [44] Inderwick, ‘Inner Temple Records,’ vol. i., p. xxiv. _Cf._ p. 48, - _supra_. - - [45] Bellot. - - [46] The last occasion of a Revel taking place in the Halls of the - Inns of Court was upon the elevation of Mr. Talbot to the woolsack - (1734). Then, after dinner, the Benchers all assembled in the Great - Hall of the Inner Temple, and a large ring having been formed round - the fireplace, the Master of the Revels took the Lord Chancellor by - the hand, who with his left took Mr. Justice Page, and the other - serjeants and benchers being joined together, all danced about the - fireplace three times, while the ancient song, ‘Round about our Coal - Fire,’ accompanied by music, was sung by the Comedian, Tony Aston, - dressed as a barrister. This song of the House has unfortunately been - lost. - - [47] Bellot, ‘Inner and Middle Temple,’ p. 49. - - [48] _Notes and Queries_, April 2, 1892. - - [49] Duchy of Lancaster, Ancient Deeds, L, 137; Close Rolls, 14 Edward - I., M, 2d. - - [50] Quoted by Stow. - - [51] Loftie, p. 53. - - [52] Dugdale. - - [53] ‘Life of Dr. Donne,’ by Izaak Walton. - - [54] ‘Black Book of Lincoln’s Inn.’ - - [55] _Ibid._ - - [56] Loftie. - - [57] Cf. _Daily Telegraph_, January 4, 1909. - - [58] Kelly, ‘Short History of the English Bar.’ - - [59] Stow, vol. i., p. 11; ed. Kingsford. - - [60] Douthwaite, ‘Notes on Gray’s Inn,’ 1876. - - [61] Luttrell’s ‘Diary,’ June 10, 1684, quoted by Douthwaite. - - [62] Douthwaite, p. 175. - - [63] Enumerated by Douthwaite, ‘Gray’s Inn,’ 1886, and, with plates, - by Dugdale. - - [64] _Cf._ Professor A. V. Dicey, in the _Nineteenth Century_, - September, 1903. - - [65] Spedding, ‘Life and Letters of Francis Bacon.’ - - [66] Halliwell-Phillipps, ‘Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare,’ p. - 104. - - [67] _Op. cit._, vol. i., p. 342. - - [68] ‘Master Worsley’s Book’--Observations on the Constitution, etc., - of the Middle Temple. Written, 1733. - - [69] To commemorate the centenary of this date a bronze statue of the - Philosopher is shortly to be placed in the centre of the grass plot in - South Square. - - [70] W. J. Broderip, _Fraser’s Magazine_, 1857. - - [71] _Cf._ _Edinburgh Review_, vol. cxxxiv., p. 488. - - [72] ‘Calendar of Inner Temple Records,’ vol. i., p. xiii. - - [73] Historical MSS. Commission, XII., part i., vol. i., p. 60. - - [74] By a charter of Edward IV., 1463, the Staple of wools was set at - Leadenhall. - - [75] _Cf._ ‘Staple Inn,’ by E. Williams, F.R.G.S., p. 100. - - [76] Douthwaite, p. 257. - - [77] _Notes and Queries_, April 2, 1892. - - [78] A full descriptive catalogue, drawn up by Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte, - is obtainable at the Public Record Office. - - [79] ‘Black Books of Lincoln’s Inn,’ vol. i., p. xxxix. - - [80] See Serjeant Pulling, ‘The Order of the Coif.’ - - [81] _Notes and Queries_, April 2, 1892. - - [82] Fetter Lane is said to be derived from ‘Fewters,’ as the abode of - vagrants, cheats, and fortune-tellers. - - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Inns of Court, by Cecil Headlam - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INNS OF COURT *** - -***** This file should be named 55062-0.txt or 55062-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/0/6/55062/ - -Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images available at The Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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