inns into the higher branch of the legal
profession.

The recumbent effigies of crusaders attest the
antiquity of the Temple Church, in the erection
of which the early knights copied the Sepulchre at
Jerusalem. Although the superior classic taste of
the benchers of Lincoln's Inn rejected his original
architectural design, and refused to adopt any
but a Gothic model, their church was built by the
celebrated Inigo Jones. Fuller assures us that
Ben Jonson, as a bricklayer, "helped in the
structure, having his trowel in one hand and his
Horace in his pocket." Shakespeare made the
Temple Gardens the scene in which the badges—
the red rose and the white—of the rival houses of
York and Lancaster, were first assumed in a brawl
by their respective partisans. To this the prediction
of Warwick, afterwards more than fulfilled,
alludes:

———This brawl to day,
Grown to this fashion in the Temple Gardens,
Shall send between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night.

We are informed by Fortescue, who held the
great seal in the reign of Henry the Fourth, that
"from the Temple all vice was discountenanced
and banished;" but we learn from Fuller that in
later days "at the Inns of Court, under pretence
to learn law," the student "learns to be lawless
—there he grows acquainted with roaring boys."
The benchers made an order in the reign of
Philip and Mary that the fellows of the Middle
Temple might wear beards of three weeks'
growth, but not longer; and in the first year of
Elizabeth it was ordered in Lincoln's Inn, "that
no fellow of that house should wear a beard above
a fortnight's growth under pain of losing his
commons, and, if obstinate, of expulsion." In the
Calendar of Domestic State Papers, recently
published, we find a grant from Elizabeth to John
Brydal, "of collector of fines in Courts Ecclesiastical
and Marine, as a recompense for having
helped to raise the gallant regiment of volunteers
of the Lines," in which he was captain under
Lord Keeper Littleton. We have witnessed in
our day the revival of the same martial spirit
among the students. That Calendar also
acquaints us that regular returns were made to
Elizabeth "of such as refuse or neglect to attend
church in their inns." With the view, perhaps,
to keep the gentlemen of the societies to their
proper studies, James the First issued a royal
proclamation, in which the voters for members of
parliament were commanded "not to choose
curious and wrangling lawyers who seek reputation
by stirring needless questions," and clauses
were constantly inserted in the writs prohibiting
their election.

Revels in early times were at certain seasons
amongst our national recreations, and were
regularly observed at the Inns of Court. The
chroniclers describe the gay scenes and masques
—favourite amusements in the infancy of
dramatic exhibitions—which were honoured by the
presence of Elizabeth; but the last record we
have of such merriment was in 1773, on the
elevation of Mr. Talbot to the woolsack. After an
elegant dinner, every member of each mess
had a flask of claret, besides the usual
allowance of port and sack. The benchers, after
their potations, all assembled in the great hall,
and a large ring was formed round the fireplace,
when the master of the revels, taking the Lord
Chancellor by the right hand, he with his left
took Mr. Justice Page, who, joined to the other
Serjeants and benchers, danced about the coal
fire according to the old ceremony three times,
while the ancient song, accompanied with music,
was sung by one Toby Aston, dressed in a bar
gown.

A Pegasus, or flying horse, is the emblem of
the Inner Temple; for, the Knights Templar
before they adopted the lamb, had appropriated
a galloping horse with two men on his back
as their armorial ensign, and it was emblazoned
on their shields. The sacred lamb bearing a
banner surmounted with a cross, is the ensign
of the Middle Temple, and seems to have been
borne by the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of
Jerusalem; for the same emblem may still be seen
on the grained roof of St. John's Gate at
Clerkenwell. This order succeeded the Knights
Templar in their possessions at Temple Bar. A
rhyming lawyer, whether seriously or ironically
we are left to conjecture, thus claims for his
profession the peculiar excellences attached to
those emblems:

That clients may infer from thence
How just is our profession,
The lamb sets forth our innocence ,
The horse our expedition.

A poetic suitor, not having been enabled by his
experience to discover those transcendant
virtues, assured his fellow-victims:

'Tis all a trick, these all are shams,
By which they mean to cheat you:
But have a care, for you're the lambs,
And they the wolves that eat you.
Nor let the thoughts of no delay
To these their courts misguide you,
'Tis you're the showy horse, and they
The jockeys that will ride you.

In early times, the clergy engrossed all the
earning of the nation, and were therefore
better qualified by study than the laity, for legal
as well as ecclesiastical pursuits. The bishops
constantly presided in some of the courts,
sometimes as sole judges, and sometimes associated
with functionaries delegated by the crown.
The inferior clergy practised in these courts,
and by reason of superior education having
improved their intelligence, clients preferred them
as advocates. The Papal See, in 1217, inhibited
the bishops from assisting in the law courts, and
the clergy from practising before any but
ecclesiastical tribunals. The prelates obeyed, but the
inferior orders of the priesthood could not be
easily induced to relinquish a course so lucrative
and so suited for display. The tonsure was in
those days the badge of religious ordination, and
the barbers had the dimensions of the several