XXXVI. STUDENT LIFE IN OLD TIME 287 XXXVII. READERS AND MOOTMEN 298 XXXVIII. PUPILS IN CHAMBERS 307 PART VIII. MIRTH. XXXIX. WIT OF LAWYERS 316 XL. HUMOROUS STORIES 334 XLI. WITS IN 'SILK' AND PUNSTERS IN 'ERMINE' 349 XLII. WITNESSES 365 XLIII. CIRCUITEERS 376 XLIV. LAWYERS AND SAINTS 390 PART IX. AT HOME: IN COURT: AND IN SOCIETY. XLV. LAWYERS AT THEIR OWN TABLES 402 XLVI. WINE 413 XLVII. LAW AND LITERATURE 423 PART I. HOUSES AND HOUSEHOLDERS. CHAPTER I. LADIES IN LAW COLLEGES. A law-student of the present day finds it difficult to realize the brightness and domestic decency which characterized the Inns of Court in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Under existing circumstances, women of character and social position avoid the gardens and terraces of Gray's Inn and the Temple. Attended by men, or protected by circumstances that guard them from impertinence and scandal, gentlewomen can without discomfort pass and repass the walls of our legal colleges; but in most cases a lady enters them under conditions that announce even to casual passers the object of her visit. In her carriage, during the later hours of the day, a barrister's wife may drive down the Middle Temple Lane, or through the gate of Lincoln's Inn, and wait in King's Bench Walk or New Square, until her husband, putting aside clients and papers, joins her for the homeward drive. But even thus placed, sitting in her carriage and guarded by servants, she usually prefers to fence off inquisitive eyes by a bonnet-veil, or the blinds of her carriage-windows. On Sunday, the wives and daughters of gentle families brighten the dingy passages of the Temple, and the sombre courts of Lincoln's Inn: for the musical services of the grand church and little chapel, are amongst the religious entertainments of the town. To those choral celebrations ladies go, just as they are accustomed to enter any metropolitan church; and after service they can take a turn in the gardens of either Society, without drawing upon themselves unpleasant attention. So also, unattended by men, ladies are permitted to inspect the floral exhibitions with which Mr. Broome, the Temple gardener, annually entertains London sightseers.