narium of the king included, amongst others, "the Judges of both Benches, Barons of the Exchequer, Masters in Chancery, the King's Serjeant and Attorney-General; and from the mixture of those it was many times called legale Consilium." Now legale Consilium, the legal Council, and Consilium eruditum in lege, the Council learned in the law, are such similar names, that it seems very probable that the Council mentioned in Bacon's patent was the Council described by Lord Hale.

Formerly King's Counsel were sometimes summoned to attend the House of Lords.

The names of Queen's Counsel and Serjeants, who are Justices of the Peace, are placed, in their proper rank amongst themselves, next after Knights Bachelors, and before Doctors of Divinity and other Esquires, in the Commission of the Peace.

No dignity or title confers any rank at the Bar. A Privy Councillor, a Peer's son, a Baronet, a Speaker of the House of Commons, and a Knight, merely rank at the Bar according to their legal precedence.

Our remarks on these subjects are necessarily confined to England.

*See Croke, Jac. I. 2.

The Inns of Court are four in number: viz., the Inner Temple, the Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn. There are also several inferior Inns, called Inns of Chancery, which were formerly under the control of the Inns of Court with respect to legal education, and students were required to pass some time here previous to admission into the Inns of Court; and these Inns comprised not only such students, but also the whole body of attorneys and solicitors. At present admission to the Inns of Chancery is of no avail as regards the time and attendance required by the Inns of Court. They appear in the time of Fortescue to have been ten in number, but are now reduced to seven; three of these-viz., Clifford's Inn, Clement's Inn, and Lyon's Inn-are or have been in connection with the Inner Temple; New Inn belongs to the Middle Temple; Furnival's Inn to Lincoln's Inn; and Staple Inn and Barnard's Inn are or have been in connection with Gray's Inn. Thavie's Inn, which formerly belonged to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, was sold in 1769 to Mr. Middleton.

C

CHAPTER II.

EARLY HISTORY. THE OLD BUILDINGS. THE GATEHOUSE. THE OLD HALL. THE CHAPEL. NEW

SQUARE. THE STONE BUILDING. THE GARDENS.

HE contemplation of buildings and places associated with the memory of departed

worth or genius has been interesting to the reflecting portion of mankind in all ages and countries. It is admitted that "whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings." The prevalence of this feeling is attested by the visits paid to many a spot consecrated to fame by genius, both in foreign climes and in our own land. For the lawyer, it may be imagined that the buildings of the Inns of Court, fraught with a thousand reminiscences of the glory and dignity of his profession, must possess peculiar interest. As he treads their courts, and views the memorials of the past around him—

those old chambers, with their strange angular projections and winding staircases, where many a sage has toiled in study through the silent hours of night, ere he rose to eminence; those ancient halls, wherein at one time was heard the grave and learned argument, and at another was held the "solemn revel," when princes, nobles, and high officers of state were entertained as guests; those sacred edifices, with their storied windows and fine carved work, where so many generations of his illustrious predecessors have knelt and prayed ;— all these, as the shades of Coke, Bacon, Hale, and Selden, with other distinguished names, rise before the mental vision of the student, must kindle his enthusiasm, and excite him to emulation.

Among the antiquities of London the Inns of Court are pre-eminent. By a glance at the earlier maps of the metropolis, it may be seen that the space of ground between Temple Bar and Westminster was not, as in our own days, crowded with rows of houses, but presented a few noblemen's mansions, with fields and gardens interspersed ; and, if the imagination be carried back to the thirteenth century, in the neighbourhood of Chancery Lane, at that time named the "New Street, leading from the Temple to Old-bourne, may be observed the palace of the Bishops of Chichester, three of whom have held the Great

Seal of England; the mansion of Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, the friend of K. Edward I. whom, while Prince of Wales, he probably accompanied as a crusader to Palestine ;* and the beautiful Church of the Knights Templars, then in all its pristine glory.

At this early period of English history, the ground now occupied by the buildings of Lincoln's Inn was the site of the mansions of persons of the highest eminence in the state, namely, that of Ralph Neville, Bishop of Chichester, Lord High Chancellor of England in the reign of Henry III.; and Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, Constable of Chester, &c. From this nobleman, distinguished by his regard for the professors of the law, and the friend of a monarch who on account of his improvement of the law has been named the English Justinian, the possessions of Lincoln's Inn have derived their It is said also that William de Haverhyll, Canon of St. Paul's and Treasurer to king Henry III., had a house on this site.

name.

The palace built by Ralph Neville on this spot is described as magnificent, and in this place the bishop "lived in a degree of splendour, from the amount of his political and ecclesiastical prefer

* This is inferred from the cross-legged figure on his monument.