In the glorious reign of Elizabeth the old [extra_illustrations.1.158.2] [extra_illustrations.1.158.1]  was converted into chambers, and a [extra_illustrations.1.158.3]  The present roof (says Mr. Peter Cunningham) is the best piece of Elizabethan architecture in London. [extra_illustrations.1.158.4]  The screen, in the Renaissance style, was long supposed to be an exact copy of front of Old ; but this is a vulgar error; nor could it have been made of timber from the Spanish Armada, for the simple reason that it was set up years before the Armada was organised. The busts of

doubting

wretched taste,

Feb. 2, 1601

(

2

).--At our feast,

we had a play called

Twelve Night

,

or What you Will

, much like the

Comedy of Errors

or

Menechmi in Plautus

, but most like and neere to that in Italian called

Inganni

. A good practice in it is to make the steward believe his lady widdowe was in love with him, by counterfayting a letter, as from his lady, in generall terms telling him what

shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gestures, inscribing his apparaile, & c., and then, when he came to practise, making him believe they tooke him to be mad.

The Temple revels in the olden time were indeed gorgeous outbursts of mirth and hospitality. of the most splendid of these took place in the year of Elizabeth's reign, when the queen's favourite, Lord Robert Dudley (afterwards the great Earl of Leicester) was elected Palaphilos, constable or marshal of the inn, to preside over the Christmas festivities. He had lord chancellor and judges, guards, officers of the household, and other distinguished persons to attend him; and another of the queen's subsequent favourites, Christopher Hatton--a handsome youth, remarkable for his skill in dancing--was appointed master of the games. The daily banquets of the Constable were announced by the discharge of a double cannon, and drums and fifes summoned the mock court to the common hall, while sackbuts, cornets, and recorders heralded the arrival of every course. At the remove a herald at the high table cried,--

The mighty Palaphilos, Prince of Sophie, High Constable, Marshal of the Knights Templars, Patron of the Honourable Order of Pegasus!- a largesse! a largesse!

For every feast the steward provided fat hams, with spices and cakes, and the chief butler dozen gilt and silver spoons, damask table-cloths, and candlesticks. The Constable wore gilt armour and a plumed helmet, and bore a pole-axe in his hands. On St. Thomas's Eve a parliament was held, when the youngest brothers, bearing torches, preceded the procession of benchers, the officers' names were called, and the whole society passed round the hearth singing a carol. On Christmas Eve the minstrels, sounding, preceded the dishes, and, dinner done, sang a song at the high table; after dinner the oldest master of the revels and other gentlemen singing songs.

On Christmas Day the feast grew still more feudal and splendid. At the great meal at noon the minstrels and a long train of servitors bore in the blanched boar's head, with a golden lemon in its jaws, the trumpeters being preceded by gentlemen in gowns, bearing torches of white wax. On Day the younger Templars waited at table upon the benchers. At the course the Constable entered, to the sound of horns, preceded by swaggering trumpeters, while the halberdiers bore

the tower

On Day the Constable was up at , and personally called and reprimanded any tardy officers, who were sometimes committed to the Tower for disorder. If any officer absented himself at meals, any sitting in his place was compelled to pay his fee and assume his office. Any offender, if he escaped into the oratory, could claim sanctuary, and was pardoned if he returned into the hall humbly and as a servitor, carrying a roll on the point of a knife. No was allowed to sing after the cheese was served.

On Childermas Day, New Year's Day, and Twelfth Night the same costly feasts were continued, only that on Thursday there was roast beef and venison pasty for dinner, and mutton and roast hens were served for supper. The final banquet closing all was preceded by a dance, revel, play, or mask, the gentlemen of every Inn of Court and Chancery being invited, and the hall furnished with side scaffolds for the ladies, who were feasted in the library. The Lord Chancellor and the ancients feasted in the hall, the Templars serving. The feast over, the Constable, in his gilt armour, ambled into the hall on a caparisoned mule, and arranged the sequence of sports.

The Constable then, with reverences, knelt before the King of the Revels, and, delivering up his naked sword, prayed to be taken into the royal service. Next entered Hatton, the Master of the Game, clad in green velvet, his rangers arrayed in green satin. Blowing

a blast of venery

A lord! a lord!

He then descended, called together his mock court, by such fantastic names as-

Sir Francis Flatterer, of Fowlershurst, in the county of Buckingham;

Sir Randal Rakabite, of Rascal Hall, in the county of Rakebell;

Sir Morgan Mumchance, of Much Monkery, in the county of Mad Mopery; and the banquet then began, every man having a gilt pot full of wine, and each paying sixpence for his repast. That night, when the lights were put out, the noisy, laughing train passed out of the portal, and the long revels were ended.

Sir Edward Coke

,

first

evinced his forensic powers when deputed by the students to make a representation to the benchers of the Inner Temple respecting the bad quality of their

commons

in the hall. After laboriously studying the facts and the law of the case, he clearly proved that the cook had broken his engagement, and was liable to be dismissed. This, according to the phraseology of the day, was called

the cook's case,

and he was said to have argued it with so much quickness of penetration and solidity of judgment, that he gave entire satisfaction to the students, and was much admired by the Bench.

In his exquisite [extra_illustrations.1.160.2]  alludes to the Temple as if he had sketched from the river, after a visit to, his great patron, the Earl of Essex,--

Those bricky towers, The which on Thames' broad, aged back doe ride, Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers, There whilom wont the Templar Knights to bide, Till they decayed through pride.

Sir John Davis, the author of , that fine mystic poem on the immortality of the soul, and of that strange philosophical rhapsody on dancing, was expelled the Temple in Elizabeth's reign, for thrashing his friend, another roysterer of the-day, Mr. Richard Martin, in the Middle Temple Hall; but afterwards, on proper submission, he was readmitted. Davis afterwards reformed, and became the wise Attorney-General of Ireland. His biographer says, that the preface to his vies with Coke for solidity and Blackstone for elegance. Martin (whose monument is now hoarded up in the Triforium) also became a learned lawyer and a friend of Selden's, and was the person to whom Ben Jonson dedicated his bitter play, . In the dedication the poet says,

For whose innocence as for the author's you were once a noble and kindly undertaker: signed, your true lover, BEN JONSON.

On the accession of James I. some of his hungry. Scotch courtiers attempted to obtain from the king a grant of the fee-simple of the Temple; upon which the indignant societies made

humble suit

most graciously

roarers, rakes, and bullies.

The Temple feasts continued to be as lavish and magnificent as in the days of Queen Mary, when no reader was allowed to contribute less than bucks to the hall dinner, and many during their readings gave fourscore or a .

On the marriage () of the Lady Elizabeth, daughter, of King James I., with Prince Frederick, the unfortunate Elector-Palatine, the Temple and men gave a masque, of which Sir Francis Bacon was the chief contriver. The masque came to by water from , in ; peals of ordnance greeting them as they embarked with torches and lamps, as they passed the Temple Garden, and as they landed. This short trip cost . The king, after all, was so tired, and the hall so crowded, that the masque was adjourned till the Saturday following, when all went well. The next night the king gave a supper to the masquers; Prince Charles and his courtiers, who had lost a wager to the king at running at the ring, paying for the banquet a man. The masquers, who dined with of the chief nobles, kissed his majesty's hand. Shortly after this Templars fought at barriers, in honour of Prince Charles, the benchers contributing each to the expenses; the barristers of years' standing, ; and the other gentlemen in commons, .

of the grandest masques ever given by the Templars was which cost , and was presented, in , to Charles I. and his French queen. Bulstrode Whitelock, then in his youth, gives a vivid

The year after the Restoration Sir Heneage Finch, afterwards Earl of Nottingham, kept his

reader's feast

Temple. years after, Prince Rupert, then a grizzly old cavalry soldier, and addicted to experiments in chemistry and engraving in his house in the , received the same honour.

[extra_illustrations.1.162.1] , says Mr. Jeaffreson, in his was stayed in its westward course at the Temple; but it was not suppressed until the flames had consumed many sets of chambers, had devoured the title-deeds of a vast number of valuable estates, and had almost licked the windows of the Temple Church. Clarendon has recorded that on the occasion of this stupendous calamity, which occurred when a large proportion of the Templars were out of town, the lawyers in residence declined to break open the chambers and rescue the property of absent members of their society, through fear of prosecution for burglary. Another great fire, some years later (-), destroyed the old cloisters and part of the old hall of the Inner Temple, and the greater part of the residential buildings of the

Old Temple.

When I was Attorney-General, my chambers in Paper Buildings, Temple, were burnt to the ground in the night-time, and all my books and manuscripts,

with some valuable official papers, were consumed. Above all, I had to lament a collection of letters written to me by my dear father, from the time of my going to college till his death in

1824

. All lamented this calamity except the claimant of a peerage, some of whose documents (suspected to be forged) he hoped were destroyed; but fortunately they had been removed into safe custody a few days before, and the claim was dropped.

I remember,

that after the fire of the Temple it was considered whether the old cloister walks should be rebuilt or rather improved into

The Old Hall Of The Inner Temple (see page 164).

chambers, which latter had been for the benefit of the Middle Temple; but, in regard that it could not be done without the consent of the Inner Houses, the masters of the Middle Houses waited upon the then Mr. Attorney Finch to desire the concurrence of his society upon a proposition of some benefit to be thrown in on his side. But Mr. Attorney would by no means give way to it, and reproved the Middle Templars very bitterly and eloquently upon the subject of students walking in evenings there, and putting

cases,

which, he said,

was done in his time, mean and low as the buildings were then. However, it comes,

he said,

that such a benefit to students is now made little account of.

And thereupon the cloisters, by the

Door from the Middle Temple. Wig-Shop in the Middle Temple. Door from the Inner Temple. Fireplace in the Inner Temple. Screen of the Middle Temple Hall. Buttery of the Inner Temple.

order and disposition of Sir Christopher Wren, were built as they now stand.

The last revel in any of the Inns of Court was held in the Inner Temple, (George II.), in honour of Mr. Talbot, a bencher of that house, accepting the Great Seal. The ceremony is described by an eye-witness in The Lord Chancellor arrived at o'clock, preceded by Mr. Wollaston, Master of the Revels, and followed by Dr. Sherlock, Bishop of Bangor, Master of the Temple, and the judges and serjeants formerly of the Inner Temple. There was an elegant dinner provided for them and the chancellor's officers, but the barristers and students had only the usual meal of grand days, except that each man was furnished with a flask of claret besides the usual allowance of port and sack. students waited on the Bench table: among them was Mr. Talbot, the Lord Chancellor's eldest son, and by their means any special dish was easily obtainable from the upper table. A large gallery was built over the screen for the ladies; and music, placed in the little gallery at the upper end of the hall, played all dinner-time. As soon as dinner was over, the play of and the farce of were acted, the actors coming from the in chaises, all ready-dressed. It was said they refused all gratuity, being satisfied with the honour of performing before such an audience. After the play, the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Temple, the judges and benchers retired into their parliament chamber, and in about half an hour afterwards came into the hall again, and a large ring was formed round the fire-place (but no fire nor embers were in it). Then the Master of the Revels, who went , took the Lord Chancellor by the right hand, and he with his left took Mr. J [ustice] age, who, joined to the other judges, serjeants, and benchers present, danced, or rather walked, round about the coal fire, according to the old ceremony, times, during which they were aided in the figure of the dance by Mr. George Cooke, the prothonotary, then upwards of ; and all the time of the dance the , accompanied with music, was sung by Tony Aston (an actor), dressed in a bar gown, whose father had been formerly Master of the Plea Office in the King's Bench. hen this was over, the ladies came down from the gallery, went into the parliament chamber, and stayed about a quarter of an hour, while the hall was putting in order. Then they went into the hall and danced a few minutes. Country dances began about , and at a very fine collation was provided for the whole company, from which they returned to dancing. The Prince of Wales honoured the performance with his company part of the time. He came into the music gallery wing about the middle of the play, and went away as soon as the farce of walking round the coal fire was over.

Mr. Peter Cunningham, of these revels, mentions that when the floor of the Middle Temple all was taken up in there were found nearly pair of very small dice, yellowed by time, which had dropped through the chinks above. he same writer caps this fact by of his usually apposite quotations. Wycherly, in his (-Charles II.), makes Freeman, of his characters, say:--

Methinks 'tis like

one

of the Halls in Christmas time, whither from all parts fools bring their money to try the dice (nor the worst judges), whether it shall be their own or no.

The [extra_illustrations.1.164.6] [extra_illustrations.1.164.2] [extra_illustrations.1.164.1]  (the refectory of the ancient knights) was almost entirely rebuilt in . The roof was overloaded with timber, the west wall was cracking, and the wooden cupola of the bell let in the rain. The pointed arches and rude sculpture at the entrance doors showed great antiquity, but the northern wall had been rebuilt in . The incongruous Doric screen was surmounted by lions' heads, cones, and other anomalous devices, and in low, classic windows had been inserted in the south front. Of the old hall, where the Templars frequently held their chapters, and at different times entertained King John, King Henry III., and several of the legates, several portions still remain. A very ancient groined Gothic arch forms the roof of the present buttery, and in the apartment beyond there is a fine groined and vaulted ceiling. In the cellars below are old walls of vast thickness, part of an ancient window, a curious fire-place, and some pointed arches, all now choked with modern brick partitions and dusty staircases. These vaults formerly communicated by [extra_illustrations.1.164.3]  with the chapel of St. Anne, on the south side of the church. In the reign of James I. [extra_illustrations.1.164.4] , but were burnt down in . In the cloister chambers were again rebuilt.

During the formation of the present new entrance to the Temple by the church at the bottom of , when some old houses were removed, the masons came on a strong ancient wall of chalk and ragstone, supposed to have been the ancient northern boundary of the convent.

Let us cull a few Temple anecdotes from various ages :

In , [extra_illustrations.1.164.5]  the , speaking upon Lord Lansdowne's motion for

Manchester massacre.

By an ordinary display of spirit and resolution,

insurrection may be repressed without violating the law or the constitution. In the riots of

1780

, when the mob were preparing to attack the house of Lord Mansfield, I offered to defend it with a small military force; but this offer was unluckily rejected. Afterwards, being in the Temple when the rioters were preparing to force the gate and had fired several times, I went to the gate, opened it, and showed them a field-piece, which I was prepared to discharge in case the attack was persisted in. They were daunted, fell back, and dispersed.

Judge Burrough (says Mr. Jeaffreson, in his

Law and Lawyers

Take care no gentleman fires from behind.

The Temple! kill the lawyers!

The scoundrels have got your hat, Bessie,

but never mind--they have left you your hair.

In Lord Eldon's there is another gate story amongst the notes on the Gordon Riots.

We youngsters,

at the Temple determined that we would not remain inactive during such times; so we introduced ourselves into a troop to assist the military. We armed ourselves as well as we could, and next morning we drew up in the court ready to follow out a troop of soldiers who were on guard. When, however, the soldiers had passed through the gate it was suddenly shut in our faces, and the officer in command shouted from the other side,

Gentlemen, I am much obliged to you for your intended assistance; but I do not choose to allow my soldiers to be shot, so I have ordered you to be locked in.

The elder Colman decided on making the younger a barrister; and after visits to Scotland and Switzerland, the son returned to , and found that his father had taken for him chambers in the Temple, and entered him as a student at , where he afterwards kept a few terms by eating oysters. Upon this Mr. Peake notes:--

The students of

Lincoln's Inn

keep term by dining, or pretending to dine, in the hall during the term time. Those who feed there are accommodated with wooden trenchers instead of plates, and previously to the dinner oysters are served up by way of prologue to the play. Eating the oysters, or going into the hall without eating them, if you please, and then departing to dine elsewhere, is quite sufficient for term-keeping.

rivulet of rhyme

meadow of margin.

Colman had sent his son to Switzerland to get him away from a certain Miss Catherine Morris, an actress of the company. This answered for a time, but no sooner had the father left the son in the Temple than he set off with Miss Morris

In the same staircase with Colman, in the Temple, lived the witty Jekyll, who, seeing in Colman's chambers a round cage with a squirrel in it, looked for a minute or at the little animal, which was performing the same operation as a man in the treadmill, and then quietly said,

Ah, poor devil! he is going the Home Circuit ;

On the morning young Colman began his studies () he was interrupted by the intelligence that the funeral procession of the great r. Johnson was on its way from his late residence, Bolt Court, through , to . Colman at once threw down his pen, and ran forth to see the procession, but was disappointed to find it much less splendid and imposing than the sepulchral pomp of Garrick years before.

Dr. Dibdin thus describes the Garden walks of the last century:--

Towards evening it was the fashion for the leading counsel to promenade during the summer months in the

Temple Gardens

. Cocked hats and ruffles, with satin small-clothes and silk stockings, at this time constituted the usual evening dress. Lord Erskine, though a great deal shorter than his brethren, somehow always seemed to take the lead, both in place and in discourse, and shouts of laughter would frequently follow his dicta.

Ugly Dunning, afterwards the famous Lord Ashburton, entered the Middle Temple in , and was called years later, in . Lord Chancellor Thurlow used to describe him wittily as

the knave of clubs.

Horne Tooke, Dunning, and Kenyon were accustomed to dine together, during the vacation, at a little eating-house in the neighbourhood of for the sum of sevenpence-halfpenny each.

As to Dunning and myself,

we were generous, for we gave the girl who waited upon us a penny a piece; but Kenyon, who always knew the value of money, sometimes rewarded her with a halfpenny, and sometimes with a promise.

[extra_illustrations.1.166.1] , before dedicating his powers finally to the study of the law in which he afterwards became so famous, wrote in Temple chambers his

Lulled by the lapse of gliding floods, Cheer'd by the warbling of the woods, How blest my days, my thoughts how free, In sweet society with thee! Then all was joyous, all was young, And years unheeded roll'd along; But now the pleasing dream is o'er- These scenes must charm me now no more. Lost to the field, and torn from you, Farewell!-a long, a last adieu!

Then welcome business, welcome strife, Welcome the cares, the thorns of life, The visage wan, the purblind sight, The toil by day, the lamp by night, The tedious forms, the solemn prate, The pert dispute, the dull debate, The drowsy bench, the babbling hall,-- For thee, fair Justice, welcome all!

That great orator, [extra_illustrations.1.166.2] , was entered at the Middle Temple in , when the heads of the Scotch rebels of were still fresh on the spikes of , and he afterwards came to keep his terms in . In he occupied a -pair chamber at the

Pope's Head,

[extra_illustrations.1.166.3] , an Irishman even more brilliant, but unfortunately far less prudent, than Burke, entered his name in the Middle Temple books a few days before his elopement with Miss Linley.

A wit,

Heraldic Anomalies,

once chalked the following lines on the Temple gate :

As by the Templars' hold you go, The horse and lamb display'd In emblematic figures show The merits of their trade.

The clients may infer from thence

How just is their profession; The lamb sets forth their innocence, The horse their expedition. Oh, happy Britons! happy isle!

Let foreign nations say, Where you get justice without guile And law without delay.

A rival wag replied to these lively lines by the following severer ones:--

Deluded men, these holds forego, Nor trust such cunning elves; These artful emblems tend to show Their clients--not themselves.

'Tis all a trick; these are all shams By which they mean to cheat you: But have a care--for you're the lambs, And they the wolves that eat you.

Nor let the thought of no delay To these their courts misguide you; 'Tis you're the showy horse, and they The jockeys that will ride you.

is said to derive its name from Sir Nicholas Hare, who was Privy Councillor to Henry VIII. the despotic, and Master of the Rolls to Queen Mary the cruel. Heaven only knows what stern decisions and anti-heretical indictments have not been drawn up in that quaint enclosure. The immortal pump, which stands as a special feature of the court, has been mentioned by the poet Garth in his -

And dare the college insolently aim,

To equal our fraternity in fame?

Then let crabs' eyes with pearl for virtue try,

Or Highgate Hill with lofty Pindus vie;

So glowworms may compare with Titan's beams,

And Hare Court pump with Aganippe's streams.

In solitary barber remains: his shop is the last wigwam of a departing tribe. Dick Danby's, in the cloisters, used to be famous. n his Lord Campbell has some pleasant gossip about Dick Danby, the Temple barber. In our group of antiquities of the Temple on page will be found an engraving of the existing barber's shop.

One

of the most intimate friends,

I have ever had in the world was Dick Danby, who kept a hairdresser's shopunder the cloisters in the Inner Temple. I

first

made his acquaintance from his assisting me, when a student at law, to engage a set of chambers. He afterwards cut my hair, made my bar wigs, and aided me at all times with his valuable advice. He was on the same good terms with most of my forensic contemporaries. Thus he became master of all the news of the profession, and he could tell who were getting on, and who were without a brief--who succeeded by their talents, and who hugged the attorneys--who were desirous of becoming puisne judges, and who meant to try their fortunes in Parliament--which of the chiefs was in a failing state of health, and who was next to be promoted to the collar of S.S. Poor fellow! he died suddenly, and his death threw a universal gloom over

Westminster

Hall, unrelieved by the thought that the survivors who mourned him might pick up some of his business--a consolation which wonderfully softens the grief felt for a favourite

Nisi Prius

leader.

In spite of all the great lawyers who have been nurtured in the Temple, it has derived its chief fame from the residence within its precincts of civilians--Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, and Chailes Lamb.

[extra_illustrations.1.167.1] ) from in , and left it for () about . hen he came to the Temple he was loitering over his edition of In a pension of a year for the time made him independent of the booksellers. In Boswell made his acquaintance and visited Ursa Major in his den.

It must be confessed,

that his apartments, furniture, and morning dress were sufficiently uncouth. His brown suit of clothes looked very rusty; he had on a little old shrivelled, unpowdered wig, which was too small for his head; his shirt neck and the knees of his breeches were loose, his black worsted stockings ill drawn up, and he had a pair of unbuckled shoes by way of slippers.

At this time Johnson generally went abroad at in the afternoon, and seldom came home till in the morning. He owned it was a bad habit. He generally had a levee of morning visitors, chiefly men of letters-Hawkesworth, Goldsmith, Murphy, Langton, Stevens, Beauclerk, & c.-and sometimes learned ladies.

When Madame de Boufflers (the mistress of the Prince of Conti) was

first

in England,

she was desirous to see Johnson. I accordingly went with her to his chambers in the Temple, where she was entertained with his conversation for some time. When our visit was over, she and I left him, and were got into

Inner Temple Lane

, when all at once I heard a voice like thunder. This was occasioned by Johnson, who, it seems, upon a little reflection, had taken it into his head that he ought to have done the honours of his literary residence to a foreign lady of quality, and, eager to show himself a man of gallantry, was hurrying down the staircase in violent-agitation. He overtook us before we reached the Temple Gate, and, brushing in between me and Madame de Boufflers, seized her hand and conducted her to her coach. His dress was a rusty-brown morning suit, a pair of old shoes by way of slippers, & c. A considerable crowd of people gathered round, and were not a little struck by his singular appearance.

It was in the year , while Johnson was living in the Temple, that the Literary Club was founded; and it was in the following year that this wise and good man was seized with of those fits of hypochondria that occasionally weighed upon that great intellect. Boswell had chambers, not far from the god of his idolatry, at what were once called

Farrar's Buildings,

Charles Lamb came to , , in . Writing to Coleridge, the delightful humorist says:--

I have been turned out of my chambers in the Temple by a landlord who wanted them for himself; but I have got others at No.

4

,

Inner Temple Lane

, far more commodious and roomy. I have

two

rooms on the

third

floor, and

five

rooms above, with an inner staircase to myself, and all new painted, & c., for

£ 30

a year. The rooms are delicious, and the best look backwards into

Hare Court

, where there is a pump always going; just now it is dry. Hare Court's trees come in at the window, so that it's like living in a garden.

The household gods are slow to come; but here I mean to live and die.

Come, and bring any of your friends the mandarins with you. My

Oliver Goldsmith (see page 167).

best room commands a court, in which there are trees and a pump, the water of which is excellent, cold--with brandy; and not very insipid without.

some idea of European literature.

on titles of honour,

[extra_illustrations.1.169.1] , early in , from Wine Office Court. It was a hard year with him, though he published and opened fruitless negotiations with Dodsley and Tonson.

He took,

rooms on the then library-staircase of the Temple. They were a humble set of chambers enough (

one

Jeffs, the butler of the society, shared them with him), and on Johnson's prying and peering about in them, after his short-sighted fashion flattening his face against every object he looked at, Goldsmith's uneasy sense of their deficiencies broke out.

I shall soon be in better chambers, sir, than these,

he said.

Nay, sir,

answered Johnson,

never mind that--nil te quesiveris extra.

I found him,

in a miserable set of chambers in the Temple. I told him my authority; I told him that I was empowered to pay most liberally for his exertions; and--would you believe it!-he was so absurd as to say,

I can earn as much as will supply my wants without writing for any party; the assistance you offer is therefore unnecessary to me.

And so I left him,

in his garret.

On the partial success of (), Goldsmith, having cleared , broke out like a successful gambler. He purchased a set of chambers (No. , up pairs of stairs, in ) for , squandered the remaining , ran in debt to his tailor, and borrowed of Mr. Bolt, a man on the same floor. He purchased Wilton carpets, blue merino curtains, chimney-glasses, book-cases, and card-tables, and, by the aid of Filby, enrobed him in a suit of Tyrian bloom, satin grain, with darker blue silk breeches, price , and he even ventured at a more costly suit, lined with silk and ornamented with gilt buttons. Below him lived that learned lawyer, Mr. Blackstone, then poring over the volume of his precious and the noise and dancing overhead nearly drove him mad, as it also did a Mr. Children, who succeeded him. What these noises arose from, Mr. Forster relates in his delightful biography of the poet. An Irish merchant named Seguin

remembered dinners at which Johnson, Percy, Bickerstaff, Kelly,

and a variety of authors of minor note,

were guests. They talked of supper-parties with younger people, as well in the London chambers as in suburban lodgings; preceded by blind-man's buff, forfeits, or games of cards; and where Goldsmith, festively entertaining them all, would make frugal supper for himself off boiled milk. They related how he would sing all kinds of Irish songs; with what special enjoyment he gave the Scotch ballad of

Johnny Armstrong

(his old nurse's favourite); how cheerfully he would put the front of his wig behind, or contribute in any other way to the general amusement; and to what accompaniment of uncontrolled laughter he once

danced a minuet with Mrs. Seguin.

In appeared It was about this time that of Goldy's Grub Street acquaintances called upon him, whilst he was conversing with Topham Beauclerk, and General Oglethorpe, and the fellow, telling Goldsmith that he was sorry he could not pay the guineas he owed him, offered him a quarter of a pound of tea and half a pound of sugar as an acknowledgment

1769

. Goldsmith fell in love with Mary Horneck known as the

Jessamy Bride.

Unfortunately he obtained an advance of

£ 500

for his

Natural History,

and wholly expended it when only

six

chapters were written.

In , Goldsmith returned from Edgware to the Temple chambers, which he was trying to sell, suffering from a low nervous fever, partly the result of vexation at his pecuniary embarrassments. Mr. Hawes, an apothecary in (and of the founders of the Humane Society), was called in; but Goldsmith insisted on taking James's fever-powders, a valuable medicine, but dangerous under the circumstances. This was Friday, the . He told the doctor then his mind was not at ease, and he died on Monday, , in his year. His debts amounted to over .

Was ever poet so trusted before?

no memorial indicates the grave to the pilgrim or the stranger, nor is it possible any longer to identify the spot which received all that was mortal of the delightful writer.

In

1842

, after some consideration, the benchers of the Temple deciding that no more burials should take place in the churchyard, resolved to pave it over. For about

fifteen

years the burial-place of Dr. Goldsmith continued in obscurity; for while some would have it that the interment took place to the east of the choir, others clung to an opinion, handed down by Mr. Broome, the gardener, who stated that when he commenced his duties, about

1830

, a Mr. Collett, sexton, a very old man, and a penurious

one

, too, employed him to prune an elder-tree which, he stated, he venerated, because it marked the site of

Goldsmith's grave

Bewick's Memorial of Goldsmith

.

The stone which has been placed in the yard

,

to mark the spot

where the poet was buried, is not the site of this tree. The tomb was erected in

1860

, but the exact position of the grave has never been discovered.

Mr. Forster, alluding to Goldsmith's love for the rooks, the former denizens of the , says:

He saw the rookery (in the winter deserted, or guarded only by some

five

or

six

,

like old soldiers in a garrison

) resume its activity and bustle in the spring; and he moralised, like a great reformer, on the legal constitution established, the social laws enforced, and the particular castigations endured for the good of the community, by those black-dressed and black-eyed chatterers.

I have often amused myself,

Goldsmith remarks,

with observing their plans of policy from my window in the Temple, that looks upon a grove where they have made a colony, in the midst of the city.

[extra_illustrations.1.158.2] Middle Temple Hall

[extra_illustrations.1.158.1] Title pages, Books printed in Middle Temple

[extra_illustrations.1.158.3] new hall built.

[extra_illustrations.1.158.4] New Lawyer Knights

[extra_illustrations.1.159.1] Luncheon in Middle Temple Hall

[extra_illustrations.1.159.2] Benchers at Commons-Middle Temple Hall

[extra_illustrations.1.159.3] Middle Temple Hall Banquet at Dedication of New Law Courts

[extra_illustrations.1.159.4] New Lawyer Knights made at New Law Courts

[extra_illustrations.1.160.2] Spenser

[extra_illustrations.1.162.1] The great fire of 1666

[extra_illustrations.1.164.6] Inner Temple Hall

[extra_illustrations.1.164.2] Passage Way, Inner Temple

[extra_illustrations.1.164.1] Part of Inner Temple 1800

[extra_illustrations.1.164.3] a cloister

[extra_illustrations.1.164.4] some brick chambers three storeys high were erected over the cloister

[extra_illustrations.1.164.5] Erskine

[extra_illustrations.1.165.1] New Buildings, Inner Temple, 1829

[extra_illustrations.1.166.1] Blackstone

[extra_illustrations.1.166.2] Edmund Burke

[extra_illustrations.1.166.3] Richard Brinsley Sheridan

[extra_illustrations.1.167.1] Dr. Johnson came to the Temple (No. 1 Inner Temple Lane

[extra_illustrations.1.169.1] Goldsmith came to the Temple

[extra_illustrations.1.170.1] Brick Court was filled with poor outcasts

[extra_illustrations.1.171.1] New Law Library

[extra_illustrations.1.171.2] Opening New Law Library 1861

[extra_illustrations.1.171.3] Title page--Vine Court