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LAW AND LAWYERS.

THE STUDENT AT LAW OF FORMER DAYS.

WHEN We read in Fortescue, that in his time (the reign of Henry VI.) there were nearly two thousand students at the Inns of Court and Chancery, we are apt to imagine that the profession must have been, at that period, most grievously overstocked. But this is a mistake. The Inns of Court at that time were in fact an university, to which the sons of our nobility and gentry were sent to finish their education, from Oxford or from Cambridge; our ancestors conceiving that an acquaintance with the laws of their country, was a necessary accomplishment for their sons. Thus we are expressly told by Fortescue, that "for the endowment of virtue, and abandoning of vice, Knights and Barons, with other states and noblemen of the realm, place their children in these Inns, though they desire not to have them learned in the laws, nor to live by the practice thereof, B

VOL. II.

but only upon their father's allowance."―(De laudibus, &c. c. 50.) So Fuller, in his character of "The true Gentleman," and "The Degenerous Gentleman," (Holy and Profane State, p. 151 and 411,) makes a residence at the Inns of Court follow that at the university as an essential part of a young gentleman's education, although he do not adopt the law as his profession. Not only, therefore, have the manners and habits of the students at law varied with the changing manners and habits of society, but also with the change in the objects of their residence at the Inns of Court. Few young gentlemen now frequent those learned purlieus without the intention of becoming actively engaged in the profession, and making it the source of emolument, if not of subsistence. The student of the present day is, therefore, a very different creature from the student of the sixteenth or even the seventeenth century; and it will not be unentertaining to sketch the portrait of the latter, such as we may suppose him to have existed about the commencement of the seventeenth century.

The young gentleman, as early sometimes as the age of fourteen or fifteen,* was sent by his friends to finish his education in the metropolis. If his connexions were noble or affluent, he was fur

*See Sir Thomas Elyott's Governor, p. 45.

nished with an aniple exhibition ;* provided with a servant and a horse,† and suffered for the most part to pursue the course to which his fancy led him. Idle habits were soon contracted, and ennui frequently drove the young gentleman to seek relief at the gaming table, ‡ or in other vicious pastimes. He became a most profane swearer,§ and enrolled himself in the ranks of the roaring boys, or roysters, and sometimes created a disgraceful

* Fortescue de Laud, c. 50. In Fortescue's time, "no student could be maintained for less expenses, by the year, than 20 marks," (13l. 6s. 8d.) Lord Keeper North had an exhibition of 604. per annum.- Life of North, v. i. p. 49. Jefferies's allowance was only 40l. a year, and 107. for clothing.-Lives of the Chancellors, v. i. p. 179. Sir T. More had so scanty an allowance, "ut nec ad reficiendos calceos, nisi a patre peteret, pecuniam haberet.” Erasmi Epist.

+ Roger North's Discourse, p. 4.

Elyott's Governor, p. 46.

§ "What formerly was counted the chief credit of an orator, these esteem the honour of a swearer, pronun ciation, to mouth an oath with a graceless grace. These (as David saith) cloath themselves with curses as with a garment, and therefore desire to be in the latest fashion, both in their cloathes and curses."-Fuller's Degenerous Gentleman. (The profane State, p. 412.)

"Here he grows acquainted with the roaring boys, I am afraid so called by a woful prolepsis here for hereafter." (Fuller, p. 412.) These roaring boys or roysters, for they were distinguished by various cant names, were bands of

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brawl, even within the hall of his own Inn.* He was, in the phrase of the day, a swinge-buckler, and knew where the Bona-robas were; yea, had the best of them at his commandment,† and the feats that he did about Turnbull Street, in his youth, furnished a theme for his old age.‡ He was ever playing at cards in the Hall, Buttery, or Butler's Chamber; § would make rude noises in the Hall at exercises, keep his hat on at readings or moots, and stand with his back to the fire. ||

disorderly persons, who paraded the streets of the metropolis at night, to the terror of the peaceable citizens. (See Miss Aikin's James I. v. i. p. 230.) In later times they were known by the name of Mohocks..-(See the Spectator.) Mr. Justice Burnet, when a student, is said to have been one of this disorderly gang. (See Ante, v. i. p. 261.) "Mr. Hale, with some other students, being invited to be merry out of town, one of the company. called for so much wine, that notwithstanding all that Mr. Hale could do to prevent it, he went on in his excess till he fell down as dead before them."-Life of Hale, p. 7.

*Sir John Davies, when a student, "interrupted the quiet of the Inn by misdemeanours, for which he was fined, and by disorders, for which he was removed from Commons." He is said to have bastinadoed Richard Martin, afterwards recorder of London, while at dinner in the Middle Temple hall, for which he was expelied. See Biog. Brit. vol. iv.

+ Second Part of Henry IV. Act 3. Scene 2.

See the Orders against these offences, Dugdale, p. 291.

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In his dress he was always topping the mode; wore his beard above three days' growth,* and dressed himself in a white doublet and hose, though under pain of expulsion.† Nay, setting at nought the orders of his house, he would appear at church with a cloak, sword, and dagger.‡

He did not, like Socrates, account dancing among the serious disciplines; for his especial delight was in Bargenettes, Turgions, rounds, and other base dances, § little esteeming the solemn post-revels of his society.

Not knowing by his study so much as what an execution meant, till he learned it by his own dear experience, he wasted all his means in his dissolute living. Through the mediation of a scrivener in his Inn, he grew acquainted with some great Usurer, who, though long dormant, at last ramped for his money. To satisfy him, his last manor was sold; and his death was as miserable as his life had been vicious. Within two generations his name was quite forgotten, except some Herald, in his visitation, passed by and chanced to spell his broken arms in a church-window. Such was the end of this "degenerous gentleman."||

But the young gentleman whose narrow income

Dugdale, p. 148.

Ibid, 323.

+ Ibid, p. 281.

§ Sir T. Elyott's Governor, p. 68. Fuller's profane State, p. 415.