The four Inns of Court in London have been described as the palladiums
of English liberty--the Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and
Gray's Inn. There are over three thousand barristers members of these
Inns, and the best known is probably Lincoln's Inn, which is named after
De Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, who died in 1312, and had his house on its
site, his device, the lion rampant, being adopted by the Inn. The
ancient gatehouse, which opens from Chancery Lane, is nearly four
hundred years old. The Inn has an old hall dating from 1506, and also a
fine modern hall, the Newcastle House, one hundred and twenty feet long,
built in Tudor style, with stained-glass windows and having life-size
figures of several eminent members in canopied niches. Here is Hogarth's
celebrated picture of "Paul before Felix." The Inn has a valuable
library, and among its members has counted More, Hale, Selden,
Mansfield, and Hardwicke.
[Illustration: THE LAW COURTS.]
Across Fleet Street, and between it and the Thames, is the Temple, a
lane dividing it into the Inner and the Middle Temple, while obstructing
Fleet Street there was the old Temple Bar, one of the ancient city
gates, which has recently been removed. The name is derived from the
Knights Templar, who existed here seven centuries ago; and they
afterwards gave the site to certain law-students who wished to live in
the suburbs away from the noise of the city. Here in seclusion, for the
gates were locked at night, the gentlemen of these societies in a bygone
age were famous for the masques and revels given in their halls. Kings
and judges attended them, and many were the plays and songs and dances
that then enlivened the dull routine of the law. The Inner Temple has
for its device a winged horse, and the Middle Temple a lamb. Some
satirist has written of these--
"Their clients may infer from thence
How just is their profession:
The lamb sets forth their innocence,
The horse their expedition."
Here is the old Templar Church of St. Mary, built in 1185 and enlarged
in 1240. Formerly, the lawyers waited for their clients in this ancient
church. During recent years England has erected magnificent buildings
for her law courts. The new Palace of Justice fronts about five hundred
feet on the Strand, near the site of Temple Bar, which was taken away
because it impeded the erection of the new courts, and they cover six
acres, with ample gardens back from the street, the wings extending
about five hundred feet northward around them. A fine clock-tower
surmounts the new courts. In this part of the Strand are many ancient
structures, above which the Palace of Justice grandly towers, and some
of them have quaint balconies overlooking the street.
[Illustration: SIR PAUL PINDAR'S HOUSE IN BISHOPSGATE STREET.]
While in old London the feasting that has had so much to do with the
municipal corporation cannot be forgotten, and on Bishopsgate Street we
find the scene of many of the famous public dinners, savory with
turtle-soup and whitebait--the London Tavern. Not far distant, and on
the same street, is Sir Paul Pindar's House, a quaint structure, now
falling into decay, that gives an excellent idea of mediaeval domestic
architecture.