CHAPTER XI 
INNS OF COURT 
Sweete Themmes ! runne softly , till I end my Song. 
At length they all to mery London came , 
There when they came , whereas those hrickly to wets 
The which on Themmes hrode aged hacke doe ryde 
Where now the studious Lawyers have their bowers , 
There whylome wont the Templer Knights to byde , 
Till they decayed through pride : 
Sweete Themmes / runne softly , till I end my Song. 
—Spenser : “ Prothalamion, or a Spousall Verse.” 
HERE are no more peaceful gardens 
in all London than those among 
the venerable buildings devoted to 
the study of the law. There is 
a sense of dignity and repose, the 
moment one has entered from the 
noisy thoroughfares which sur¬ 
round these quiet courts. They 
may be dark, dull, and dingy, as seen by a Dickens, and 
sombre and serious, to those whose business lies there; 
but to the ordinary Londoner, who loves the old world 
of the City, and the links that bind the present with the 
past, there are no more reposeful places than these 
gardens. The courts and buildings seem peopled with 
