dullness had
sent the boy to sleep, and so caused his fatal fall--prosecuted Sir
Thomas for murder in the High Court, alleging in the indictment that the
death was produced by a "certain blunt instrument of _no value_, called
a _long speech_." The records of the Northern Circuit abound with
testimony to the hearty zeal with which the future Chancellor took part
in the proceedings of the Grand Court--paying fines and imposing them
with equal readiness, now upholding with mock gravity the high and
majestic character of the presiding judge, and at another time
inveighing against the levity and indecorum of a learned brother who had
maintained in conversation that "no man would be such a----fool as to go
to a lawyer for advice who knew how to get on without it." The monstrous
offender against religion and propriety who gave utterance to this
execrable sentiment was Pepper Arden (subsequently Master of the Rolls
and Lord Alvanley), and his punishment is thus recorded in the archives
of the circuit:--"In this he was considered as doubly culpable, in the
first place as having offended, against the laws of Almighty God by his
profane cursing; for which, however, he made a very sufficient atonement
by paying a bottle of claret; and secondly, as having made use of an
expression which, if it should become a prevailing opinion, might have
the most alarming consequences to the profession, and was therefore
deservedly considered in a far more hideous light. For the last offence
he was fin'd 3 bottles. Pd."

One of the most ridiculous circumstances over which the Northern Circuit
men of the last generation delighted to laugh occurred at Newcastle,
when Baron Graham--the poor lawyer, but a singularly amiable and placid
man, of whom Jeckyll observed, "no one but his sempstress could ruffle
him"--rode the circuit, and was immortalized as 'My Lord 'Size,' in Mr.
John Shield's capital song--

"The jailor, for trial had brought up a thief,
Whose looks seemed a passport for Botany Bay;
The lawyers, some with and some wanting a brief,
Around the green table were seated so gay;
Grave jurors and witnesses waiting a call;
Attorneys and clients, more angry than wise;
With strangers and town-people, throng'd the Guildhall,
All watching and gaping to see my Lord 'Size.

"Oft stretch'd were their necks, oft erected their ears,
Still fancying they heard of the trumpets the sound,
When tidings arriv'd, w