*

You did commit me :

For which, I do commit into your hand

The unstained sword that you have used to bear ;
With this remembrance,-That you use the sarne
With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit,
As you have done 'gainst me.

King Henry IV. Second Part, act v. scene 2.

The account given by one of our old chroniclers of the Prince's committal to prison by Sir William Gascoigne differs but little from that of Shakespeare. "It happened that a servant of Prince Henry (afterwards the fifth English King of that Christian naine) was arraigned before this judge for felony, whom the Prince, then present, endeavoured to take away, coming up in such fury that the beholders believed he would have stricken the judge. But he sitting without moving, according to the majesty he represented, committed the Prince prisoner to the King's Bench, there to remain until the pleasure of the Prince's father were further known. Who, when he heard thereof by some pick-thank courtier, who probably expected a contrary return, gave God thanks for His infinite goodness, who, at the same instant, had given him a judge who could minister and a son who could obey justice."

Happy am I, that have a man so bold,
That dares do justice on my proper son;
And not less happy, having such a son,
That would deliver up his greatness so,
Into the hands of justice.

Sir William Gascoigne was Reader of Gray's Inn till 1398, when he was called to the degree of King's Serjeant-at-Law, and on the 15th of November 1401, was constituted Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He died on the 17th of December 1413.

-

Among many other eminent lawyers who were members of Gray's Inn, may be mentioned Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas in the reign of Henry the Eighth, and one of our most distinguished writers on the laws of England;-Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal during the first twenty-five years of the reign of Elizabeth, and father of the great Lord Bacon ;-John Bradshaw, who sentenced Charles the First to the block in Westminster Hall; John Cooke, who, as Solicitor General of the Commons of England, conducted the prosecution against the King at his mock trial; - and, nearer our own time, Sir Samuel Romilly, Sir John Bayley, and Sir William Garrow. The latter lived for many years in No. 11, Gray's Inn Place, leading to the Gardens. Lord Bacon, whom we have already mentioned as a member of Gray's Inn, lived at No. 1, Coney Court, which was unfortunately burnt down in 1678. The site is occupied by the present row of buildings at the west end of Gray's Inn Square, adjoining the gardens in which the great philosopher took such delight.

Besides the eminent lawyers we have mentioned,

some of our most celebrated statesmen, prelates, and poets, have been members of Gray's Inn. Here resided the great statesman, Thomas Cromwell, afterwards Earl of Essex, who succeeded Wolsey in the favour of Henry the Eighth, and to whom the disgraced Cardinal addressed his famous apostrophe:

Oh! Cromwell, Cromwell,

Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in my age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.

King Henry VIII. act. iii. scene 2.

Cromwell was admitted a member of Gray's Inn in 1524. In 1535 he commenced his career of greatness, and, only five years afterwards, on the 24th of July 1540, he fell by the stroke of the executioner on Tower Hill. Two other celebrated statesmen, who were members of this Inn, were the great Lord Burghley, who was admitted a student in 1540, and his son, Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, and first minister to James the First.

Among the distinguished prelates who have been members of Gray's Inn, we find the ambitious and merciless Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, whose name is associated with so many fearful scenes of human suffering;-Whitgift and Bancroft, successively Archbishops of Canterbury ; — Lord Keeper Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, and afterwards Archbishop of York;-his implacable enemy, Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury;-Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich, author of the well-known

"Satires" and "Contemplations ;"-James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh, whose political hostility was forgiven by Oliver Cromwell, in admiration of his private virtues;—and, lastly, William Juxon, Bishop of London, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, who attended Charles the First on the scaffold.

Of the literary men, and especially poets, who were members of Gray's Inn, we have still a longer list. Among these, let us mention the graceful and chivalrous Sir Philip Sidney;-Edward Hall, the chronicler;-George Gascoigne, a popular poet in the reign of Elizabeth ;-George Chapman, the translator of Homer;-James Shirley, the dramatic poet;-Thomas Rymer, author of the "Foedera," and no contemptible poet; Thomas May, the translator of Lucan's "Pharsalia ;"-Samuel Butler, the author of "Hudibras," and Arthur Murphy, the dramatist and translator of "Tacitus." Lastly, among the eminent men who belonged to the Society of Gray's Inn, let us mention John Lambert, the distinguished Parliamentary General in the Civil Wars, and the still more celebrated George Monk, Duke of Albemarle.

Of the other Inns of Court, in the neighbourhood of Holborn, but little remains to be said, and that little possesses no extraordinary interest.

THAVIE'S INN, which stood on the south side of Holborn, was the hostel or inne, in the reign of Edward the Third, of one John Thavie, who leased it to the students-at-law, and who, by his

last will, directed it to be sold in order to maintain a chaplain, who was to pray for his soul and that of his wife, Alice. In the reign of Edward the Sixth, it came into the possession of Gregory Nicholas, who made a grant of it to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, by whom it was erected into an Inn of Chancery, on condition of paying the annual sum of 31. 6s. 4d., as an acknowledgment of its dependency on the mother house. In 1771, it was disposed of by the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn to a private individual, and being subsequently destroyed by fire, a range of private buildings was erected on its site.

FURNIVAL'S INN, near Brook Street, another appendage of Lincoln's Inn, stands on the site. of the princely inne of the Lords of Furnival, that valiant family whose names so often occur in the annals of chivalry, from Girard de Furnival who fought by the side of Richard Cœur de Lion on the plains of Palestine, to Thomas de Furnival, the companion of the Black Prince on the field of Cressy. In 1383, the race becoming extinct in the male line, Furnival's Inn fell by marriage into the possession of the Earls of Shrewsbury. In their hands it remained till the reign of Edward the Sixth, when, on the 1st of December, 1548, Francis Earl of Shrewsbury, disposed of the mansion to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, who converted it into a separate Inn of Court, on condition of an annual payment of 31. 6s. 8d. The Inn was rebuilt in the reign of James the