Old Inns of Court Customs.
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OLD INNS OF COURT CUSTOMS. THE history of the Inns of Court in days gone by, apart from its legal interest, affords us a good insight into the festive and social life of our forefathers. Indeed, the merry doings associated with these old institutions are proverbial, and many a graphic picture has been bequeathed to us illustrative of the joviality which once formed a prominent characteristic on all seasons of rejoicing. Thus it may be remembered that in the hall of the Middle Temple was per formed Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," — a fact recorded in the table book of John Manningham, a student of the Middle Tem ple : "Feb. 2, 1601-2. — At our feast we had a play called Twelfth Night; or What You Will." As Charles Knight remarks in his " Pictorial Shakespeare," " it is yet pleas ant to know that there is one locality re maining where a play of Shakespeare was listened to by his contemporaries, and that play ' Twelfth Night.' " We read, too, how in the reign of Charles I. the students of the Middle Temple were accustomed at AllHallow Tide, which they considered the be ginning of Christmas, to prepare for the festive season, an account of which we find in Whitelock's " Memoirs of Hulstrode Whitelock." Evelyn alludes to the Middle Temple feasts, and describes that of 1688 as " very extravagant and great, as the like had not been seen at any time." Equally famous were the entertainments at the Inner Temple, — Christmas, Candle mas, Ascension Day, and Halloween having been observed with great splendor. In 1561 the Christmas revels were kept on a very splendid scale. At breakfast, brawn, mus tard, and malmsey were served; and at the dinner in the hall several imposing cere monies were gone through. Thus it is re lated how, between the two courses, first came the master of the game, then the ran ger of the forests, who, having blown three
blasts of the hunting-horn, paced three times round the fire, then in the middle of the hall. Nine or ten couples of hounds were then brought in, with a fox and a cat, which were set upon by the dogs, amidst the blow ing of horns. At the close of the second course the oldest of the masters of the rev els sang a song. Finally, after supper, the Lord of Misrule addressed himself to the banquet, which, amongst other diversities, generally concluded with minstrelsy and dancing. Many of the dinner customs of the Inns of Court are curious. Thus a banquet at the Inner Temple is a grand affair. At six the barristers and students in their gowns follow the benchers in procession to the dais; the steward strikes the table three times, grace is said by the treasurer or senior bencher present, and dinner commences. The wait ers are called " panniers," from the "panarii" who attended the Knights Templars; and in former years it was the custom to blow a horn in every court to announce the meal. The loving cups used on important occasions are huge silver bowls, which are passed down the table filled with time-honored " sack," which consists of " sweetened and exquisitely flavored white wine; " each student being restricted to a " sip." On the 29th May a gold cup of this fragrant beverage is handed to each member, who drinks to the happy restoration of Charles II. Referring to the customs once observed at the Middle Temple banquets, many of these have died out. " The loving cup," Mr. Thornbury remarks in " Old and New London" (I. 179), " once fragrant with sweetened sack, is now used to hold the almost superfluous toothpicks. Oysters are no longer brought in, in Term, every Friday before dinner; nor when one bencher dines does he, on leaving the hall, invite the senior bar-man to come and take wine with him in the Par
