Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 09.pdf/421

 Rh

claim in 1748 to be appointed a justice of the peace for Westminster. Cowper the poet entered the Inner Tem ple as a student in 1748, and was called in 1754. He was much averse to his profes sion, and longed for country life and repose. His necessities, however, compelled him to follow his calling to some extent, and sub sequently he was made a commissioner of Bankrupts and a clerk to the Committee of the House of Lords. Like Beaumont, he was of legal descent, his grandfather having been Spencer Cowper, a justice of the Com mon Pleas. Of the famous literary Irishmen of the last century, Burke, Sheridan, Moore, and Goldsmith were members of the Middle Temple. Burke joined in 1750, but his health was weak, and he seems to have spent much of his time traveling about in company. He was never called to the bar, for his distaste for the study of law led to his rejection of the profession for which he had been destined by his parents. It is said that this angered his father so much that he withdrew his allowance of £iOO a year. When in London, Burke always re sided about the Temple, and in 1756 we hear of him lodging above a bookseller's shop at Temple Bar. Sheridan and Moore, who had been together at the school of Mr. Samuel Whyte, in Dublin, were both mem bers of the Middle Temple, but forsook law for literature. It was the success of the "Odes of Anacreon" that led Moore to take this step. One cannot but remark how often success in literature has turned aside the ambition for legal honors. It would seem that the young aspirant for fame takes hold of that which first holds out a hand to him. Moore's nominal connection with the legal profession may have stood him in good stead, for he was made Registrar of the Court of Admiralty in Bermuda. " Poor Goldy," the kind-hearted and sympathetic poet and essayist, first entered the walls of the Mid dle Temple in 1763. Here he lived, here he

worked, here he died, and, by the north side of the church, a plain slab marks his tomb. He first lived for five years in Garden Court, and there he commenced his " Deserted Village." Forster, his biographer, writes : "Nature, who smiled upon him in his cradle, in this garret in Garden Court had not de serted him. Her school was open to him even here, and in the crowd and glare of streets but a step divided him from the cool and calm refreshment. Amongst his hap piest hours were those -passed at his win dow, looking into the Temple Gardens .... as there he sat, with the noisy life of Fleet Street shut out, and made country music for himself out of the noise of the Old Tem ple rookery." He removed to No. 2 BrickCourt in 1768, and there he lived until 17/4, the year of his death. " I have been," says Thackeray, "many a time in the chambers in the Temple that were his, and passed up the staircase which Johnson, Burke, and Reynolds trod to see their friend, their poet, their kind Goldsmith; the staircase on which the poor women sat weeping when they heard that the greatest and most generous of men was dead behind the black oak door." To the same coterie of the residents of the Temple belonged Johnson and Boswcll. They lived in the building of the Inner Tem ple. " Dr. Johnson's Buildings" still bear testimony of the great lexicographer's resi dence, where many distinguished persons visited him in his untidy rooms. We can imagine how, many a time, with his greasy old wig all awry on his head, and his stock ings and slippers as slovenly as usual, he would drag himself, with Boswell by his side, across Hare Court to visit Goldsmith. And as easily can we imagine all three wending their way in the dark evenings to the " Mitre Tavern," the famous resort of that jovial com pany. Boswell lived in Farrer's Buildings, at the entrance to Hare Court, and it is said to be here that he first met Johnson, who found in him a patient listener to his mighty sentences.