ccupied with his professional pursuits to take any
great heed or regard of his personal comforts.

It was a characteristic feature of the slowness of legal process in those
days that though the notice of action was sent on August the 28th, 1827,
the case was not ripe for trial until February 14th of the next
year--nearly six months having elapsed. It is difficult to speculate as
to what this long delay was owing. There were only two witnesses whose
evidence had to be briefed--Mrs. Cluppins and Mrs. Sanders--and they were
at hand. It is odd, by the way, that they did not think of examining
little Tommy Bardell, the only one who actually witnessed the proceeding.
True, he was of tender years--about eight or ten--and the son of the
Plaintiff, but he must have "known the nature of an oath."

THE TRIAL.

At last the momentous morning came round. It was the fourteenth of
February, Valentine's Day, 1828--one not of good omen for the Plaintiff.
{26} The Defendant's party was rather gloomy at breakfast, when Perker,
by wave of encouraging his client, uttered some _dicta_ as to the chances
of the Jury having had a good breakfast "Discontented or hungry jurymen,
my dear Sir, always find for the Plaintiff." "Bless my heart," said Mr.
Pickwick, looking very blank, "What do they do that for!"

The party then got into hackney coaches and was driven to the Guildhall,
where the case was to be tried at ten o'clock precisely.

[Picture: Exterior of the Guildhall Court.--Now City Museum]

[Picture: Interior of the Guildhall, Court, circa 1830. (From an
original drawing by T. Allen.)]

How dramatic Boz has made the "calling of the Jury," which might be
thought an uninteresting and prosaic operation enough. It was a special
jury, which entailed one guinea per head extra expense on Mr. Pickwick.
He had, of course, asked for it: but Dodson and Fogg would have been well
content with and perhaps even have preferred a common jury. Now-a-days,
special jurors, though summoned largely, have to be almost coerced into
attending. A fine of ten pounds is imposed, but this is almost
invariably remitted on affidavit. The common jurors, moreover, do not
show the reluctance to "serve" of Groffin, the chemist. A guinea is not
to be despised. There are, as it were, professional common jurors who
hang about the Courts in the hope of being thus called as "understudies."
On this occasion what was cal