Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 06.pdf/446

 Temple Students and Temple Studies.

411

TEMPLE STUDENTS AND TEMPLE STUDIES. By Dennis W. Douthwaite. I. WHEN Dugdale was about compiling that excellent folio volume of five hundred pages, which he designed as a "manual for students of lawe and all serious persons," he was moved, in the first place, to descant on the want which that handy vol ume was about to fill. Many and quaint are the reasons which urged him to this end — now-a-days men publish a series on less provocation — and among them, "for that divers Young Students, finding in the Antient Year Books frequent authorities for opinions, not only do take all of them to be Judges of old . . . but which is much worse, viz., in not being well acquainted with the true names of the Judges, do take those ab breviations of their names, there found, to be their very genuine and proper appella tions; Id Est Mutt, for Mutford, Stouff. for Stouford . . . consequently their so well deserving memorie is utterly buried in the depth of Oblivion." It is uncertain whether the Young Student now-a-days permits him self the recreation of the Antient Year Books. An ever increasing curriculum makes it diffi cult to find time for lighter reading, and in the need to master " Smith's Analysis of Jones's Equity," the more fanciful attractions of Bracton " De Legibus " (which Coke read three times a year) must needs be eschewed. Moreover, Time has played havoc with many of the names there mentioned, and has, per haps, come to look on " Stouff." as indeed "a very genuine and proper appellation" for certain things there laid down. So that the preface to the " Origines " is only quoted now to point out that our legal heroes still, to some degree, suffer from the same neglect. It is not too much to say that the plot of ground about the Temple Church or the Middle Temple Hall holds more tradition

than any similar plot in the kingdom. Yet how seldom comes a Bencher with the same pious enthusiasm which marks the Oxford Dons who charge a higher rent for the rooms from which Shelley was expelled. How few among the present dwellers in the Temple could say, off-hand, where Blackstone's chambers were; or Mansfield's, al though Pope has embalmed the very num ber in his verse. Or tell the site of the house on the outskirts, where Selden lived, in what Wood calls " a conjugal way," with the Countess of Kent. How many Middle Temple men can direct you to the door in the Hall under whose hammer-headed nails can still be felt the tanned cuticle of that over-daring Dane who was caught stealing the plate, and so was skinned for a warning? It becomes increasingly difficult to find that door. Nay, who knows now which is old and which new Temple — which part of Middle Temple Lane is " of the good date" and which has a poor modern reputation of 1700. "I don't know," says Thackeray, " whether the student of law permits himself the re freshment of enthusiasm, or indulges in poetical reminiscences as he passes by his torical chambers, and says, ' Yonder Eldon lived; upon this site Coke mused upon Lit tleton (a hard task this, for the place is not known); here Chitty toiled; here Barnewall and Alderson joined in their famous labors; here Byles composed his great work upon Bills, and Smith compiled his immortal "Leading Cases." ' " We doubt if the Tem ple often hears such musings; we fear that like Gallio (who was himself a lawyer) he cares for none of these things, and has but a very imperfect acquaintance with the traditions of his Inn.