and the third time to be banished the house. But the
fashion at that time of wearing beards grew then so predominant, as that
the very next year following, at a council held at this house, upon the
27th of November, it was agreed and ordered, that all orders before that
time touching beards should be void and repealed." In the same year in
which the authorities of Lincoln's Inn forbade the wearing of beards,
they ordered that no fellow of their society "should wear any sword or
buckler; or cause any to be born after him into the town." This was the
first of the seven orders made in 1 Eliz. for _all_ the Inns of Court;
of which orders the sixth runs thus:--"That none should wear any velvet
upper cap, neither in the house nor city. And that none after the first
day of January then ensuing, should wear any furs, nor any manner of
silk in their apparel, otherwise than he could justifie by the stature
of apparel, made _an._ 24 H. 8, under the penalty aforesaid." In the
eighth year of the following reign it was ordained at Lincoln's Inn
"that no rapier should be worn in this house by any of the society."

Other orders made in the reign of James I., and similar enactments
passed by the Inns in still more recent periods, can be readily found on
reference to Dugdale and later writers upon the usages of lawyers.

On such matters, however, fashion is all-powerful; and however grandly
the benchers of an Inn might talk in their council-chamber, they could
not prevail on their youngsters to eschew beards when beards were the
mode, or to crop the hair of their heads when long tresses were worn by
gallants at court. Even in the time of Elizabeth--when authority was
most anxious that utter-barristers should in matters of costume maintain
that reputation for 'sadness' which is the proverbial characteristic of
apprentices of the law--counsellors of various degrees were conspicuous
throughout the town for brave attire. If we had no other evidence
bearing on the point, knowledge of human nature would make us certain
that the bar imitated Lord Chancellor Hatton's costume. At Gray's Inn,
Francis Bacon was not singular in loving rich clothes, and running into
debt for satin and velvet, jewels and brocade, lace and feathers. Even
of that contemner of frivolous men and vain pursuits, Edward Coke,
biography assures us, "The jewel of his mind was put into a fair case, a
beautiful body with comely countenance; a case which he did wipe and
keep clea