r Charles II.
were regulated upon a liberal scale we know from Roger North, and the
record of Sir John King's success. Speaking of his brother Francis, the
biographer says: "After he, as king's counsel, came within the bar, he
began to have calls into the Court of Chancery; which he liked very
well, because the quantity of the business, _as well as the fees_, was
greater; but his home was the King's Bench, where he sat and reported
like as other practitioners." And in Sir John King's memoirs it is
recorded that in 1676 he made L4700, and that he received from L40 to
L50 a day during the last four days of his appearance in court. Dying in
1677,[9] whilst his supremacy in his own court was at its height, Sir
John King was long spoken of as a singularly successful Chancery
barrister.

Of Francis North's mode of taking and storing his fees, the 'Life of
Lord Keeper Guildford' gives the following picture: "His business
increased, even while he was Solicitor, to be so much as to have
overwhelmed one less dexterous; but when he was made Attorney General,
though his gains by his office were great, they were much greater by his
practice; for that flowed in upon him like an orage, enough to overset
one that had not an extraordinary readiness in business. His skull-caps,
which he wore when he had leisure to observe his constitution, as I
touched before, were now destined to lie in a drawer to receive the
money that came in by fees. One had the gold, another the crowns and
half-crowns, and another the smaller money. When these vessels were
full, they were committed to his friend (the Hon. Roger North), who was
constantly near him, to tell out the cash, and put it into the bags
according to the contents; and so they went to his treasurers, Blanchard
and Child, goldsmiths, Temple Bar."[10] In the days of wigs, skull-caps
like those which Francis North used as receptacles for money, were very
generally worn by men of all classes and employments. On returning to
the privacy of his home, a careful citizen usually laid aside his costly
wig, and replaced it with a cheap and durable skull-cap, before he sat
down in his parlor. So also, men careful of their health often wore
skull-caps _under_ their wigs, on occasions when they were required to
endure a raw atmosphere without the protection of their beavers. In days
when the law-courts were held in the open hall of Westminster, and
lawyers practising therein, were compelled to sit or speak