t the societies had no security of
tenure until they purchased their respective properties.

[Illustration: LINCOLN'S INN HALL: THE LORD CHANCELLOR'S COURT.

_From a drawing by T. H. Shepherd._]

It has been shown that the deep hollow, at the bottom of which flowed
the stream of Holborn, formed a natural barrier between the walled city
and its suburb. It also divided the guilds and trade associations of
London from that plexus of schools of laws which at first radiated from
Holborn Bars. The guilds recognised the leading of the Mayor and
Commonalty; the schools of law looked for direction chiefly to the law
officers of the Crown. In Florence, and other cities of the Middle Ages,
the associations of judges, attorneys, and wool-merchant lawyers were as
much a part of civic and communal life as any other guild; the different
conditions which existed in England led to different consequences.

But the hold which the King's officers obtained, both over the machinery
of the Courts and over the voluntary societies of law students, was the
cause, no doubt, of the attempts which were made during the Tudor and
early Stuart periods to organise all the Inns of Court and Chancery into
a University of Law. Those attempts failed; chiefly through the lack of
wisdom displayed in issuing arbitrary and meddlesome Orders in Council,
instead of allowing unification to mature on those natural and voluntary
lines which had already been laid down.

Now the Inns of Chancery have practically vanished, leaving the Inns of
Court to monopolise all the glory of the great future which undoubtedly
still lies before them.

FOOTNOTES:

[75] _Inq. ad quod damnum_, 46 Hen. III., file ii., No. 47.

[76] _Duchy of Lancaster, Ancient Deeds_, L. 132-140.

[77] _Close Rolls_, 14 Ed. I., m. 2d.

[78] _Court of Hustings Wills_, R. R. Sharpe.

[79] _Survey of London_, pp. 32, 33. John Stow, reprint, 1876.

[80] _Patent Rolls_, 16 Ed. II., pt. i., m. 31.

[81] _Inq. p.m. Chan._, 20 Ed. IV., 99.

[82] _Feet of Fines_, London Trin., 44 Eliz.

[83] _Ancient Deeds_, B. 2191.

[84] _Placita Parl._, 35 Edw. I.

[85] _Memorials of London_, p. 357. H. T. Riley, 1868.

[86] _Historical Charters_, W. De Gray Birch.

[87] _The Commune of London_, J. H. Round.

[88] _Charter Rolls_, 19 Hen. III., m. ii.

[89] _Pat. Rolls_, 1 Ed. VI., pt. vi., m. 37.

[90] _Rot. Parl._, vol. i., p. 84, No. 22.

[91] _Chart. Convent of Malmesbury, Cotton MS._ Faust.,