60 1
later the two were smothered in the Tower" passage the editor shows us Littleton stand (xliv—xlv). Six years later (August 23, 1841) ing face to face with royalty itself. "In 1450, the learned judge died and was buried in Coventry was visited by Henry the Sixth. The ceremonies are carefully described in a Worcester Cathedral. The interesting will minute that may have been composed by is set forth at length (xlvii—Ivii). In this way Littleton is made a thing of Littleton himself. Tine account of the King's flesh and blood; is made to appear in this receiving at the old Priory the Mayor and world as one of us, clothed with a personal the other representatives of Conventry con tains 'this passage as to the spokesman: and historical interest, for whose personality we of the twentieth century may well have a 'Thomas Lytelton then recordur, seyde unto genuine respect and human interest. the Kynge suche wordes as was to his So much for Littleton the .man. In the thynkyng most plesaunt; oure soveren lorde next place, Mr. Wambaugh shows us the seven g agayne the wordes: 'Sir, I thank you course of study pursued by the lawyer of of youre goode rule and démené, and in those days (xxi.—xxii.), and Littleton's prog spesiall four youre goode rule the last yere ress in his profession as barrister and serpast, for the best ruled pepull thenne within jeant (xxix.—xxxviii.). under sheriff of my reame; and also I thank you for the Worcestershire and recorder of Coventry p'sent that ye nowe gave to us.' The which (xxv.—xxix.) and Judge of the Court of p'sent was a tonne of wyne and xx'tie grete Common Pleas (xxxviii. et seq.). fat oxen" (xxvii). It is perhaps in the treatment of this sub In 1466; Littleton was appointed judge of ject that Mr. Wambaugh's rich learning and the Common Pleas and once again the painstaking investigation well-nigh over learned editor projects his author into the whelm the reader. The Year Books are clear light of history. "In 1475, ne received opened and made to testify to Littleton's a mark of the royal favor by being brought practice, both before and after his elevation in to add distinction to a brilliant ceremony, to the degree of Serjeant, and the effect of which then was picturesque and which now his promotion is considered upon his prac seems both picturesque and pathetic. Nicolas, tice (xxix.—xxxi.). the historian of the Order of the Bath, after Nor is the investigation stopped here. The describing certain early admissions to that editor examines the cases in the Reports dur order, says: 'The next creation was in 1475, ing Littleton's fifteen years' service in the when the Prince of Walesand Duke of York, Common Pleas and the statement is hazarded the two sons of King Edward the Fourth, re that "the Year Books present a considerable ceived the honours of chivalry, on which oc number of cases that can be read with inter casion . . . many other of the young est even now" (xli.—xliv.). As Mr. Wam nobility, together with the Chief Justice of baugh enumerates the cases and gives exact the King's Bench, and the learned Judge references to them the reader is in a posi Littleton, were made Knights of the Bath.' tion to appreciate the labor of love evervThe historian goes on to describe the details where evident in the edition. of the instituting of a Knight of the Bath; Littleton—the man, the lawyer and the but the modern reader does not need those details, gorgeous though they be, to fix his judge—is thus carefully placed before us, but lest the picture might fail as a portrait, Mr. mind upon the pageant of that particular day; for when the venerable Littleton was made a Wambaugh tells us that there used to be three Knight of the Bath the two princes who were portraits and critically examines their origin and history (Ivii.—lix.), and makes Coke similarly honored were children who now are vouch for "the well-known engraving which among the most conspicuous figures in his first appeared in 1629." as a "true por tory: one of them was then five years old, and the other was three; and eight years traiture."
