"You shall swear well and truly to serve the King's people as one of the serjeants-at-law; and you shall truly counsel them that you be retained with after your cunning; and you shall not defer, or delay their causes willingly, for covetousness of money, or other things that may turn you to profit, and you shall give due attendance accordingly; so help you God." A few months before the Great Fire of London, in which old St. Paul's was consumed with its parvise and pillars, Dugdale wrote: "At St. Paul's each lawyer and serjeant at his pillar heard his client's cause and took notes thereof upon his knee, as they do at Guildhall at this day." He adds: "After the Serjeants' feast ended they do still go to Paul's in their habits, and there choose their pillar whereat to hear their client's cause (if any come) in memory of that old custom." Naturally, the Order of the Coif was jealous of its distinctions and privileges; and the following incident, for which we are indebted to the late Mr. Serjeant Ballantine, will serve to illustrate the point. "I have now," he says, "taken my readers back to my old inn. I will venture to surround it with all the halo to which it is entitled. We were, and had from time immemorial been, connected with the Corporation of the City of London, and inasmuch as the greatest compliment appreciated by that august body was annually paid to us, we were doubtless once upon a time of no small importance ourselves. We received an invitation to dine at the Lord Mayor's on November 9, and arrayed in robes that gave us as much claim to notice as men in armour, and, preceded by a personage known as the City Marshal, we were assigned seats amongst the principal guests at that great festival, and it was really a sight worthy of notice....