one long table,
under the presidency of the Lord Chancellor, and the chief personages of
the inn dined at a corresponding long table, having the reader for their
chairman.

In the following January, Charles II. and the Duke of York honored
Lincoln's Inn with a visit, whilst the mock Prince de la Grange held his
court within the walls of that society. Nine years later--in the
February of 1671--King Charles and his brother James again visited
Lincoln's Inn, on which occasion they were entertained by Sir Francis
Goodericke, Knt., the reader of the inn, who seems almost to have gone
beyond Heneage Finch in sumptuous profusion of hospitality. Of this
royal visit a particular account is to be seen in the Admittance Book of
the Honorable Society, from which it appears that the royal brothers
were attended by the Dukes of Monmouth and Richmond; the Earls of
Manchester, Bath, and Anglesea; Viscount Halifax, the Bishop of Ely,
Lord Newport, Lord Henry Howard, and "divers others of great qualitie."

The entertainment in most respects was a repetition of Sir Heneage
Finch's feast--the king, the Duke of York, and Prince Rupert dining on
the dais at the top of the hall, whilst the persons of inferior though
high quality were regaled at two long tables, set down the hall; and
the gentlemen of the inn condescending to act as menial servants. The
reader himself, dropping on his knee when he performed the servile
office, proffered the towel with which the king prepared himself for the
repast; and barristers of ancient lineage and professional eminence
contended for the honor of serving His Majesty with surloin and
cheesecake upon the knee, and hastened with the alacrity of well-trained
lacqueys to do the bidding of "the lords att their table." Having eaten
and drunk to his lively satisfaction, Charles called for the Admittance
Book of the Inn, and placed his name on the roll of members, thereby
conferring on the society an honor for which no previous king of England
had furnished a precedent. Following their chief's example, the Duke of
York and Prince Rupert and other nobles forthwith joined the fraternity
of lawyers; and hastily donning students' gowns, they mingled with the
troop of gowned servitors, and humbly waited on their liege lord.

In like manner, twenty-one years since (July 29, 1845) when Queen
Victoria and her lamented consort visited Lincoln's Inn, on the opening
of the new hall, they condescended to enter their names in