them more: they are far superior to any of the walks in Paris that are so much admired and talked of."

It is from these same chambers at No. I Hare Court, that Thackeray, giving up for the time both Taprell's and the law, "strode away for a twelve hours' stretch over the moors of Cornwall to plunge headlong into the feverish delights of platform and canvassing — perhaps the keenest form of interest and excitement that can occupy the human brain. It is impossible. once to indulge in it, and, for whatever reason, to give it up, without feeling a blank in the activities of life which is very difficult to fill. One can imagine how Thackeray threw himself into the battle.

"But alas for Taprell's! alas for the monthly income! and alas for the woolsack!"

Of this escapade he writes to his mother on June 25, 1832, the letter being dated at Cornwall:

"Are you surprised, dear Mother, at the direction? Certainly not more prepared for it than I was myself, but you must know that on Tuesday in last week I went to breakfast with Charles Buller, and he received a letter from his constituents at Liskeard requesting him immediately to come down; he was too ill, but

instead deputed Arthur Buller and myself so off we set that same night by the mail, arrived at Plymouth the next day, and at Liskeard the day after, where we wrote addresses, canvassed farmers, and dined with attorneys. . . .

"I have been lying awake this morning meditating on the wise and proper manner I shall employ my fortune in when I come of age, which, if I live so long, will take place in three weeks. First, I do not intend to quit my little chambers in the Temple, then I will take a regular monthly income which I will never exceed. . . . God bless you, dear Mother; write directly and give your orders. . . Charles Buller comes down at the end of next week if you want me sooner I will come, if not I should like to wait for the Reform rejoicings which are to take place on his arrival, particularly as I have had a great share in the canvassing."

"In 1834," says Rideing, "he was called to the bar, and for some time he occupied chambers in the venerable buildings with the late Tom Taylor. His rooms were then in an adjoining Court, at Number 10 Crown Office Row. Philip had chambers in the Temple, and there, also, in classic Lamb's Court, Pendennis and Warrington were located Warrington

smoking his cutty pipe, and writing his articles

the fine-hearted fellow, the unfortunate gentleman, the unpedantic scholar, who took Pendennis by the hand and introduced him to Grub Street when that young unfortunate came to the end of his means

A dark, muggy, London day it was, when I opened my easel in front of the house that had seen the young fellow's first efforts to conquer a career, for to-day, as in Thackeray's time, the sun "does not shine in Taprell's Chambers," in Hare Court, nor out of it for that matter. Nor was there anybody about. All the rush, all the roar, and under-hum of the great city was gone as soon as I dived under the archway leading out of Fleet Street, and made my way down a narrow lane, into the solemn quiet of the Middle Temple. And the quiet continued as I passed down and into the small square of Brick Court where Thackeray had his chambers, and so on into the various Inns of Court one after another -Pump Court, Lamb Court, Crown Office Row, Hare Court, and the others.

But desolate and abandoned as they were, the watchful eyes of the Imperial Government were open upon their solitudes.

"I presume you have a permit, sir," came