Year: 1876

hat. been called to the bar not quite
a year, and was seated with my friend
Frank Armitage in our chambers in the
Temple. Frank had been called on the
same day as myself, and we had agreed
to make our professional start together.
, To that end we had become joint pos
SCISSORS of set of chambers ut No. SO
Figtree court, and of boy named
Blobbs, who was known as our "clerk, !"
though his tender years and seedy gar
ments made the dignifed appellation
sound almost ironical. His style OF
dress was peculiar, and gave one the
idea that he had several brothers of va
rious sizes, and had borrowed an article
of apparel from each-his boots belong
ing to the eldest and his trousers to the
youngest. There were sundry other
boys on our staircase, with whom
Blobbs was constantly having little diff
ferences and fighting them out upon
the landing; indeed this, with occasional
expeditions to Prosser's $ for commissariat
purposes, formed the staple of his pro-
fessional occupations. When he first
undertook his duties we had started him
with pint bottle of ink, ream of draft
paper, aud a gross of pens; and we had
enjoined him to employ all his leisure
time in copying precedents. He begun
with great vigor, and copied about a
page and half in large schoolboy
hand the first morning, but he never got
. any further. The ream of paper dwin-
died somehow, and the ink disappeared
to an extent which even the numerous
little black devils, with which Blobbs
had embellished his domain, failed to
account for, until one morning detect.
ed him in the act of blacking his boots
with it, and polishing them with the
penwiper. SILL, as boys go, Blobbs was
not very bad specimen; and as we
really had no work for him to do, we
were not disposed to be extremely angry
with him for not doing it.


Fortunately, Armitage and myself
were both to considerable extent indie
pendent of our profession, for, to all ap
pearance, our profession was quite indie
pendent of us. We had been called, as
l have mentioned, very nearly year,
and neither of us had yet been favored
with brief nor did there appear tc
be any particular likelihood that We
ever should. We had q friend, Charley
Larcombe, who had recently been arti
cled to a solicitor, and who had prom


sed that when he was out of his arti
cles (Which would be in about foul
years. and had passed his examination
(Which might be forty) he would "givt
us lift" This rather vague prospec
really appeared to be our only chance
but with the natural sanguineness O.
youth we still looked for briefs, though
we had not the faintest notion wher,
they were to come from. 10 truth, ii
the very early days of our professional
career (when we had only been barrister
forla week or two) we used to watcl
with anxious solicitude any person o
legal aspect who was seen to cross th'
court in the direction of our staircase
but we found that the person of lega
aspect invariably stopped short at th'
chambers of Cocksure. @. g., which
were Immediately below ours, and th'
approach of a stranger had now ceaseC
to excite more than a casual interest
Our personal habits, too, had degeper
ated. At the outset of our career w
had unanimously agreed that every
thing of an unprofcssional character il
our belongings should be rigidly taboo
ed. In particular we had decided tha
our breakfast should always be over an,
its remains cleared away before nile A