ning in the somewhat unprofessional garb of walking kit,
having covered a good many miles before breakfast.'

The office staff in 1871 consisted of ten men. Six of them have died,
two cannot now be traced, and the remaining two mentioned by Mr Edwards
are very old men.

Mr Edwards also says that in one deed which was written by Louis
Stevenson there are five errors on two short pages, so that although the
handwriting in it is neat, round, and clear, it is evident that his
thoughts were not on his work, and that he was no more diligent in law
than he had been in engineering. His handwriting, although neat and
distinct, can hardly be called pretty, he seemed to use a good deal of
ink in those days as the down strokes are all black and heavy. In spite
of his lack of interest in his office work he passed advocate with
credit on 14th July 1875, was called to the Bar on the 15th, and had his
first brief on the 23rd.

He duly donned a wig and gown during the following session, and the
delicate face that was so grave and refined looked very picturesque with
the luminous eyes gleaming out from under the grey horse-hair. He joined
the ranks of those 'Briefless Barristers' whose business it is to walk
the hall of the Parliament House in search of clients. He had either one
or two briefs, but he gave them away as he never acted as an advocate.
His mother treasured the shillings he got for them among her relics of
his early days.

Although his connection with the Parliament House was totally devoid of
that professional success that ultimately leads to a seat on the
Bench--but for which Mr Stevenson had no desire--it was not without its
uses as an education for that other success by reason of which very many
people who have never seen his face know and love him to-day. If his
sojourn within those venerable halls was useless for law it was
fruitful for literature, and one can imagine that as he now and then
haunted the courts and listened to the advocates and the judges he was
already, from a study of the Bench of the present, laying the foundation
for those brilliant pictures of the judges of a ruder past which he
gives us in Lord Prestongrange or Lord Hermiston. It is not very fair or
very complimentary to the judges of 1875 to compare them with such a
creation as Lord Hermiston, but it was not much more than half a
century, before their day, that customs and manners like his were
possible.

The robes, the forms, the etiquette