DEPARTED GLORY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 151, 23 December 1929, Page 9

DEPARTED GLORY

CAVALCADE OF JUDGES

PICTURESQUE CUSTOM LOST

PRESENT-DAY TRAVEL

Tor huudreds of years His Majesty's Judges have been going on circuit, but only for a short time, compared with the antiquity of the itinerant Courts, have they travelled by train. In the administration of the law, many a long-standing blemish or shameful iniquity has beeu removed, and many a picturesque custom too, perhaps, has become obsolete. There has been gain celerity and efficiency, but tneie has also been some loss in dimity and grandeur, „,,•„ a writer in an overseas

A description extant enables us to reaonV't at 1 b fraVC Sigllt !t must h ™ l^u long ago, before ever coaches were, commonly used, to witness the judicious cavalcade on its long and tedious journey. First rode the crcuit porter, "clad in leathern erkin, with huge jackboots, bearing in his hand a good ebony wand capped with silver, ilis duty it was to cause all men of what estate soever, whom they met or overtook to draw aside and do reverence to the majesty of the law. On his appearance the wayfarer doffed hat and t£vfpSfby? WatCh the Ki^S ™-

IMPRESSIVE IN DIGNITY. Next followed the clerks of the Jud~e gentlemen m holy orders, shaven, and shorn well skilled in the wondrous penmanship and stall more curious Norman-; French and aw-Latin of the day. Behind i them rode with stately mien the most im- ' portant personage save the Judge the ofL^ct^a^'. llogng:b^rded and grave ot aspect. Within his stout and wellsecured saddle-bags reposed the essential documents authorising the operation of ' R<Li^ aCtale- IT- °£ Justice' specially the Royal commission. To-day such commissions are drawn out in much the same words with the Great Seal of England a* tached, empowering the high functionaries . named therein to try all the manifold' ■enmes and offences, causes and disputes.1 Close to the clerk of the assize rode his officers, and then three or four learn- , ,ed sergeants of the law in their red robes and hoods followed by "my lord, the ■ Kings justice," an old man of reverend aspect, riding upon an ancient mule, and ■ t otr! i? * lon S red coat of the finest' broadcloth iaced with velvet, sleeves, and-' (collar thickly embroidered with gold, ou i his head the square black cap (now the lawful forerunner of death), the border or a white satin coif peeping forth beneath fcolemn was he of countenance, or ought Ito have been, pondering the weighty responsibilities of settling the fate of <o many beings.

MEETING OF ARMED RETINUES. Behind the Judge, at the setting out trom the Courts at Westminster, rode the sheriffs of London and Middlesex and' their escort for the judge o£ stout and well-armed retainers, to conduct him out ;o£ their bailiwicks. At the tail o£ the procession came the servin°--men andf i sumpter-horses. Hile after mile the cavalcade proceeded, the boundary of each county witnessing the departure of one' sheriff g escort and the arrival of another • armed retinue. On the way through the' land royal noblemen and gentry eagerly offered hospitality, and whether in lordly" mansion or great hostelry, each night the judge wag feasted and lodged right royally. Roger North describes how, in the* tinia oi Charles 11., travelling from Newcastle to Carlisle, the judges were escorted along the road by the tenants of the varilous manors, "a comical sort of. people, riding on nags, as they call their small horses, with long beards, cloaks, and lons broadswords with basket hilts." Such a. formidable array was not uncalled for hi the wild Border country, where the lawless freebooting exploits of Jock of Hazeldene and AVat Harden were still recent memories.

N At each .assize town the inhabitant* flocked to witness the-judge's arrival. The high sheriff and a long train- of javcliu 'men and trumpeters, with all the gentlemen oi.'. the county on horseback, were waitics to receive him. Statute 20, Richard 11.. forbade "any lord or other or the county, little or great, to sit upon the bench with the justices," save the sheriff. He alone was by the side of the judge, when, seated in awful state, lie heard and often. directed the pleas of the trembling prisoners, or charged the obsequious jury. TRAVELLING BY COACH. There was a long period during which judges rode in their. coaches. Wedderburn and Erskine, perhaps as Scots de-' lighting to astonish the Southrons, were' famous for the splendour of their equip- ' ages. On the other hand LordEldoii,^ even when Lord Chancellor, went about in' a battered ramshackle coach that excited the derision of the street boys. Erskine. ', even at an advanced age, could well have ■ travelled on circuit in the saddle, for he i remained a splendid horseman, but Eldon.-? never bestrode a horse if he could avoidl it. The glory of the judge's progress has sadly diminished, and their retinue ' dwindled away. They are well advised to'^ retain all that remains of ancient pomps —the reception by the sheriff and other : officials, the attendance of javelin men, the special service at church, and so on. ' "''Where are your trumpeters, slr. Sher- ; iff?" demanded a'judge in a certain university town. "Why, my lord," was the,! reply, "I considered those fellows useless 51 and determined to discontinue them."' Then the judge waxed wroth. "Mr. Sheriff, fifty years ago I was a student of , this university, poring over my books iv my room, when I heard the trumpeters ' usher the judge into the town. Their notes sounded so sweetly in my ears that I resolved I would one day be a judge. Sir, I have respected trumpeters ever : since, and I determine not to discontinue : them. If two are not in attendance tomorrow morning, I shall fine you a hundred pounds-." ONSLAUGHTS OF FLEAS. Even within the memory of judges' still.: | alive there used to be cause for complaint' ; at the lodgings provided for them in some ' . towns. There might then be an unseemly,-1 v squabble with the sheriff, and the judge" i usually vented his grievances to the grand '• ■ ■jury. A certain witty judge concluded" t his charge to the panel with the words:!: "Gentlemen, to-morrow morning I will. proceed to try, with the assistance otj the petty jury, those prisoners against whom you present true bills—if, indeed, I*! find myself able to do so. respecting which fl I have some doubt, fearing I can scarcely* survive a repetition of last night's on-v slaughts of neas and larger animals in--,i i'esting the filthy abode which your loyal-] sheriff, with your approbation, has chosen?'; for the habitation of the representatives of' your Sovereign." There used to be a curious custom, when the names of the magistrates of thee? country were read over by the clerk of£ assize, and they were invited by the t judge in open court to dive with him, of.1) the crier holding before each a white glove '.: fastened on a wand, into which he had to": | drop a shilling. Some justices of the peace used to nickname the judge's din-* net- "the shilling ordinary," and so their S lordships abolished the quaint custom: j In the old days of slower travel an exceptionally long calendar might cause ' difficulty in beginning at the • following :' town on the circuit on the clay named in the commission. On more than one ocI casion business at one assize town has | been concluded only late in the day appointed for opening at the next place, and " i the hard-worked judge and clerk of assize have rattled off in their coach, up hill and down dale, with fresh horses at every posting house, and entered the assize town barely in time for the Royal Commission to be read by candlelight while midnight rang out from the neighbouring steeple.