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 290 INNS OF COURT Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, each of which contained 200 members. Stow, in his "Sur- vey of London" (1598), says of the lawyers who occupied these inns : " These societies are no corporations, nor have any judicial power over their members, but have certain orders among themselves which by consent have the force of laws. For slight offences they are only excommoned, that is, put out of com- mons, which is, not to eat with the rest in their halls; and for greater, they lose their chambers, and are expelled the house; and being once expelled, they are not to be admitted by any of the other three societies. The gen- tlemen in these societies may be divided into four ranks: 1, benchers; 2, utter benchers ; 3, inner barristers; 4, students." In course of time two bodies were formed, called the " Hon- orable Society of the Inner Temple " and the "Honorable Society of the Middle Temple," who held their buildings as tenants of the knights hospitallers until the suppression of monastic bodies by Henry VIII., after which they held them of the crown by lease. In 1608 the buildings of the two temples were granted by letters patent of James I. to the chancellor of the exchequer, the recorder of London, and the benchers and treasurers of the Inner and Middle Temples, for "lodging, re- ception, and education of the professors and students of the laws ;" and it is by virtue of these grants that they are still held by an in- corporated society of the " students and prac- tisers of the laws of England." The Temple garden, which lies between Whitefriars and Essex street, has been celebrated by Charles Lamb and Leigh Hunt, and was much frequent- ed as a pleasure walk during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the hall of the Inner Temple, a noble room ornament- ed with emblematical paintings by Sir James Thornhill, and by por- traits of Littleton and Coke,dinner is prepared for the members of the inn every day during term time. Students of law must keep 12 terms, that is, five years, at the inns of court before they are entitled to be called to the bar, and those of the Inner Temple are required to dine in this hall at least four times in each term. On certain "grand days" the judges, the masters in chancery, and many of the lead- ing lawyers of England dine here, together with a large assemblage of the students. For- merly the Inner Temple was celebrated for the magnificence of its entertainments and revels, especially in the 16th and 17th centuries. The hall of the Middle Temple, the largest and finest of the old inns of court, was built in 1562-'72. It is ornamented by elaborate carv- ings, by portraits and busts, and by the coats of arms of Somers, Hardwicke, Cowper, Thur- iliddle Temple Hall. low, Dunning, Eldon, Blackstone, Stowell, Tenterden, Curran, and many other eminent lawyers, formerly members of the society, em- blazoned on its windows. Lincoln's Inn, the next in importance to the Inner and Middle Temples, is on the W. side of Chancery lane. Inner Temple Hall and Library. and derives its name from being on the site of the palace of an earl of Lincoln who died there in 1310, and by whom the land was assigned to certain professors of the law for the establishment of an inn of court. The hall and library, designed by Hardwick, and finished