The Trotter. 



Exchequer, or Common Pleas during that period, at the suits of so- 

 and-so, "greeting." A large square patch on the middle of the 

 third side was devoted to summonses to appear before one or the 

 other of her Majesty's justices of the peace for the county, for 

 assaults, poaching, trespasses, or (crime of crimes) for having, when 

 in a state of intoxication, obstructed a policeman in the exe- 

 cution of his duty. There were some few declarations pasted here 

 and there among the civil processes, but most appeared to have been 

 settled as soon as the first shot had been fired ; while on the margin 

 of every summons was written how the case terminated for in- 

 stance, "Fined 5/.," "Discharged with a caution," "Bound over to 

 keep the peace." I have examined collections of various kinds in 

 my life, but I never saw half so curious a one as this. 



By a careful study of these walls, one read Sam's whole life as 

 plainly as any biography could tell it. The summonses which con- 

 tained the gravest charges bore dates during the ten years that elapsed 

 between Sam's succession to the property and his marriage (a few 

 were even antecedent to that period) ; many of the writs were issued 

 at the same time, and I was sorry to see that many were dated 

 within the last five years, and that each succeeding year seemed to 

 beat the last in number. For the first few years of his married life, 

 not a summons appeared, and very few writs. The earlier sum- 

 monses were principally to answer charges of "assault and battery," 

 some of them of a rather grievous nature ; but of later years Sam's 

 principal offences seemed to have been of a more venial kind tres- 

 pass in pursuit of game -, and the keepers of the Right Hon. the Earl of 



appeared to have had many a merry dance after him, according 



to the statements contained in these summonses. I observed the copy 

 of the last writ bore- date just three days prior to my visiting the 

 summer-house. I could not but help thinking that Sam must be a 

 tolerably profitable client to whatever attorney he might honour 

 with his patronage. It was not so much through inability to pay as 

 through a careless inattention to all matters of business that Sam 

 always required to be summoned before he paid a debt; and I have 

 met with more such men than one during my journey through life. 



