South Lambeth.
[Footnote 1: [See "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., pp. 199. 252. 304.]]
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Forensic Jocularities._--The epigram on "Four Lawyers," given in Vol. ix.,
p. 103. of "N. & Q.," has recalled to my recollection one intended to
characterise four worthies of the past generation, which I heard some
thirty years since, and which I send for preservation among other flies in
your amber. It is supposed to record the history of a case:
"Mr. Leech
Made a speech,
Neat, concise, and strong;
Mr. Hart,
On the other part,
Was wordy, dull, and wrong.
Mr. Parker
Made it darker;
'Twas dark enough without.
Mr. Cooke,
Cited his book;
And the Chancellor said--I doubt."
--a picture of Chancery practice in the days "when George III. was king,"
which some future Macaulay of the twenty-first or twenty-second century,
when seeking to reproduce in his vivid pages the form and _pressure_ of the
time, may cite from "N. & Q." without risk of leading his readers to any
very inaccurate conclusions.