liament Chamber (the accommodation-room of Oxford Colleges). Dugdale informs us that " until the second year of Queen Elizabeth's reign, this society did use to drink in cups of aspenwood; but then those were laid aside, and green earthenware pots in troduced, which have ever since been con tinued." Amongst the old customs asso ciated with the Middle Temple may be mentioned the calves'-head breakfast which was given by the chief cook of the society to the whole fraternity, for which every member paid at least one shilling. In the eleventh year of James I., however, this breakfast was turned into a dinner, and ap pointed to be held on the first and second Monday in every Easter Term. The price per head was regularly fixed, and to be paid by the whole society, as well absent as pres ent, and the sum thus collected was divided amongst all the domestics of the house. The merry doings at Lincoln's Inn were, in days gone by, kept up with much enthu siasm; and frequent notices of the " Rev els " are given by our old writers. Charles Knight, too, in his " Cyclopaedia of London" tells us that on such occasions dancing and singing were insisted on, and, by an order of February 6 in 7th James I., it appears that " the under-barristers were by decimation put out of commons for example's sake, because the whole Bar were offended by their not dancing on the Candlemas Day preceding, according to the ancient order of the society, when the judges were pres ent." Of the social customs formerly ob served, we read that at each mess it was a rule that there should be a " moot daily;" the junior member of each mess having to propound to the rest some knotty ques tion of law, which was discussed by each in turn during the dinner. Not many years ago, too, it was the custom for one of the servants, attired in his robes, to go to the threshold of the outer door about twelve or one o'clock, and call out three times, "Venez manger." To quote a further old
custom, in the first year of Elizabeth it was ordered " that no Fellow of the House should wear a beard of above a fortnight's growth, under penalty of loss of commons, and, in case of obstinacy, of final expulsion." Gray's Inn, again, formerly had its masques and revels, when the presentation of plays seems to have been one of the chief features. A comedy acted at Christmas, 1527, written by John Roos, a student of the Inn, so offended Wolsey that its author was actually imprisoned. Amongst the many customs relating to the dining-hall, we are told that in 1 58 1 an agreement was made regarding Easter, in accordance with which the mem bers who came to breakfast after service and communion were to have "eggs and green sauce " at the expense of the House, and that no calves' heads were to be provided by the cook. In the year 1600 members were instructed not to come into the hall with their hats, boots, or spurs; but with their caps, decently and orderly, "according to the ancient orders." Gray's Inn has also been noted for its exercises known as " bolt ing," which is thus defined in Cowell's Law Dictionary, — " Bolting is a term of art used in Gray's Inn, and applied to the bolting or arguing of moot cases." Lastly, a very curious dinner-custom has in years gone by been kept up at Clifford's Inn. The society consists of two distinct bodies, — "The Principal and Rules," and the junior members or " Kentish Mess." Each body has its own table. At the con clusion of the dinner the chairman of the Kentish Mess, first bowing to the Principal of the Inn, takes from the hand of the servi tor some small rolls or loaves of bread and, without saying a word, he dashes them three several times on the table; he then dis charges them to the other end of the table, from whence the bread is removed by a servant in attendance. Solemn silence, broken only by three impressive thumps upon the table, prevails during this cere mony. — Illustrated London News.
