scene "Whereas Mennell, one of the Utter Barristers, was negligent and toke lytyl study in his last moote and was not conformabyll to the saying and orders of the Bench in his lernying and motyng but presumptuously seyd to the Benche that they coude not brynge in the learnying better than it was brought in"-he was put out of commons. The "Bolt" was a sort of Moot in which a person call "Putcase" was requisitioned. "Putcase" started the discussion and then-by a prudent provision of the Bench-was "to sit down betweene

after dinner and "he gave the felows oppro: brious and presumptious words." He no doubt resented it as talking "shop," but we need not interpret "opprobrious words" too seriously; for we have one, Barnard, fined 5 marks for refusing the office of "Master of the Revels" with opprobrious words which were nothing worse than that "he could not nor would not exercise the said office." Those times were much more punctilious in the matter of language than we are today.

THE READER AND OTHER OFFI

CERS OF THE SOCIETY.

With this high esteem for learning, the office of Reader was naturally one of distinction the most important, in fact-in the Society. Unfortunately it was also an expensive one. Custom had decreed that a Reader must give a dinner and a supper to the company during his reading and he had to do it handsomely. If the preparation for the dinner was "miserable and miserly" the steward of the Reader's dinner might be fined. The result was that members of the Society often declined the office and were heavily fined in consequence. Sir Robert Rich, for instance, in 1621 is fined 100 marks "for not reading in his turne" and the said Sir Robert being impenitent, his chambers are sold towards paying the fine. Besides its Reader the Inn had its Dean of the Chapel-who was paid the same as the Manciple-its Treasurer, its Keeper of the Black Books, its Marshal, its Pensioner, its Butler, its Steward, its Master of the Revels, its Escheator, who brought the fuel for Christmas and Torches for the Chapel, its Master and Under Cook, its Turnbroche, its Manciple, its Clerk of the Pantry, its Pannierman, its Laundress, its Beadle, its Fool and its Minstrels. It seems rather a superfluity of offices for so small a society, but many of them were honorary and served by members of the Society. For example, we find Sir Thomas More acting successively as Auditor of the Society, Pensioner, Butler, Reader, Marshal and Governor. The stewardship was a post of danger. If the unfortunate steward spent more than he ought, that is, if his "apparels" or disbursements exceeded his receipts or "emendals" he got no wages.

A YEAR'S EXPENSES.

The steward's account of payments for the Inn for the year is interesting as a specimen of the Society's expenditure:

But there was better cheer than beer and bread and cheese. The Steward's chief item was the amount paid to the Manciple "for victuals bought and for fuel and for divers condiments (sanciamentis) and other necessaries in the kitchen as appears in the Kitchen book, £150 5s. 31⁄2d. Then, too, members who wanted to be excused keeping vacations often compounded for the exemption by such things as a "hoggishead of red Gascon wine" or a "buk and doewe;" we know that there was once a swan also in the Society's larder, because three of the young gentlemen-Woodhouse, Fermor and Dysney-were fined ten shillings each "because they brake the larder house and took from thens a swan and buk in Lamasse vaceyon last"-on another occasion some quince pies were abstracted from the oven, but a worse occurrence was the window of the buttery being broken "whereby certeyn persons of the Cumpanie unknowyn interid in to the sed buttery and brake the scler dore and lett out the wynne and spoyled and spylte ytt in the flore." This offence was deemed so serious that the Benchers agreed that "the hoole Com

men which vexed the righteous souls of the Benchers from day to day. "HEARING THE CHIMES AT MID

NIGHT."

In fact, Master Justice Shallow's recollections of the wildness of his youth when he "lay at Clement's Inn and his feats about Turnbull Street" do not seem to have been at all over colored. For instance, one Hobart, a member, is fined 20 pence "for fighting with the Society of Gray's Inn at nyght"-reminiscent of Master Shallow's

again, John Bradshaw makes his humble confession "of having pleyed at the cards at the porter house of the Rolles in the Chancelare Lane with dyvers of his felyship," and promises being re-admitted that he will "never hereafter do so more." On another occasion a young gentleman of the Inn was caught "in domo suspecta" near Newgate by the Constable and Beadle of the Ward and, but for the Alderman's "reverence for the Society" would have been sent to Newgate.

What Master Justice Shallow calls the bona robas was indeed a subject on which

as "contrarie to the good and laudable rules of this Housse" the Benchers were very strict so far, at least, as the Inn and its precincts were concerned and many are the fines recorded in respect of the surreptitious introduction of the fair sex into the Inn.

THE "CONEY GARTH.”

The greater part of the Town was rented from the Bishop of Chichester at 20 marks (£6-13-4) a year, but there was a small strip on the north held at 9s a year from the Prior of St. Giles, which contained a "coney garth," or rabbit warren, with seven elms and an ash growing in it. This "coney garth" was a source of much temptation to the young gentlemen of the Inn with sporting proclivities and of corresponding trouble to the Benchers. For instance, in 1483, two gentlemen of the Town, Arundel and Knevet, are put out of commons "for hunting and killing coneys in the coney garth;" and the chasing of the coneys became so common that at last the Bench had to order that "if anyone of the society shall hunt or kill any coney within the coney garth or within the metes and bounds of the same he shall forfeit on each occasion 20s," and this had shortly after to be supplemented by a further order that "none of the Companie shall have hys bow bent withyn the coney yard nor hunt nor kill coneys upon payne of Xld."

ORDER IN HALL.

Keeping order and decorum in Hall, too, was no easy matter. The young gentlemen, instead of the proper costume of cap and gown, would wear "hattes" in Hall-even in Chapel, or "redd" coates, or, later, "long heare or great Ruffes," or "goe booted" or with "their rapyer under the gowne." In 1509 it is recorded by the Benchers that "in future no one may be at Clerk's commons unless he be decorously clad and not

with his shirt in public view beyond his doublet at his neck." It was also agreed at a Benchers' Council "that no gentleman beying a felowe of this Housse shall ware any cut or ponsyd hosyn or bryches or ponsyd doublett upon payne of puttyng out of the house." In 1520 we have the following entry: "Mem: to call the Companie and to exhort them to leave knockyng on the pottes and makyng of noyse in the Hall and not to inquyett Mr. Reder in the vacation of his study." Making wagers in Hall was likewise forbidden as being a practice wherof "insuyth moche dyscencyon." One of the duties of the "butteler" and of the steward also was to report those that "speake loud and high at meal time in the Hall and cause such persons to cease their high speech." Possibly this may have been the cause of one of the young gentlemen being fined 12d "for gyvyng off one off the buttelers a blowe on the ere." Another "lately admitted" is fined for committing a "fowle affray" upon the person of the steward, and shortly after another is suspended "for his disorder in throwing a dish of butter at the steward in Hall time." This was certainly worse than "giving the Panierman a slap in Hall."

The officers of the Society evidently needed special protection at Christmas, for we find a resolution of the Benchers that "it be pronouncyd to the Companie that they myshandell not the officers of the Housse this tyme of Chrystimasse upon payne of grievous amercyamentes." "THE PUMPEING OF THE PORTER."

Then comes the expulsion of another gentleman for "pumpeing of the Porter." The worst of this affair was that he was assisted in it, the pumpeing, by two other barristers, one of whom actually boasted of the feat and gloried in it before the Council. This was a Mr. Heron, and his being in consequence put out of commons, led to an