The Town: Its Memorable Characters and EventsHunt, Leigh
History
The Town: Its Memorable Characters and Events
Hunt, Leigh
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
says the proverb; but the lawyers in those days had already so many
refreshments to their solemnity, in masks and revels, that it was
thought necessary to provide for decency of mastication in ordinary.
Attempts to regulate trifles of this sort, however, have always been
found more difficult than any others, the impertinence of the
interference being in proportion. Think of the officers watching the
illegal growth of the beard; the vexation of the "dandies," who wanted
their beards out of doors; and the resentment of the unservile part of
the elders! He that parted with his beard, rather than his three and
fourpence, would be looked upon as an alien.
In the hall of Lincoln's Inn is Hogarth's celebrated failure of "Paul
preaching before Felix." It seems hard upon a great man to exhibit a
specimen of what he could not do. However, the subject does not appear
to have been of the society's choosing. A bequest had been made them
which produced a commission to Hogarth, probably in expectation that
he would illustrate some of the consequences of good laws in his usual
manner.
Old Fortescue was of Lincoln's Inn; Spelman, the great antiquary; Sir
Thomas More; Cromwell; Sir Mathew Hale; Lord Chancellor Egerton,
otherwise known by his title of Lord Ellesmere; Shaftesbury, the
statesman; and Lord Mansfield. Dr. Donne also studied there for a
short time, but left the Inn to enjoy an inheritance, and became a
clergyman. However, he returned to it in after life as preacher of the
lecture; which office he held about two years, to the great
satisfaction of his hearers. Tillotson was another preacher. It is
difficult to present to one's imagination the venerable judges in
their younger days; to think of Hale as a gay fellow (which he was
till an accident made him otherwise); or fancy that Sir Thomas More
had any other face but the profound and ponderous one in his pictures.
His face, indeed, must have been full of meaning enough at all times;
for at twenty-one he was a stirring youth in Parliament; and at twenty
he took to wearing a hair-shirt, as an aid to his meditations. It is
interesting to fancy him passing us in the Inn square, with a glance
of his deep eye; we (of posterity) being in the secret of his
hair-shirt, which the less informed passengers are not.
The account of Hale's change of character, on his entrance into
Lincoln's Inn, merits to be repeated.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account