Legal London in 1900: Inns of Court: Gray's Inn

As part of his survey of London's legal institutions, Arthur H. Beavan had this to say about Gray's Inn in Imperial London, published in 1901:

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Gray's Inn commenced its career as an Inn of Court about the time of Edward III, and in 1900 its Society owned a considerable amount of property from the rear of Holborn to Theobald's Road, including South Square, Field Court, Raymond and Verulam Buildings, Gray's Inn Place, and Gray's Inn Square.

In this last-named was the old chapel, by 1900 slightly modernized.

Gray's Inn Hall, date circa 1560, though smaller than that of other Inns, is just as attractive to lovers of the past.

It is wainscoted, and has some magnificent stained-glass windows, while on its walls hang portraits of Royalties, chiefly the Stuarts.

Its famous garden was formed three centuries ago, and its Walks were in high fashion in the Merry Monarch's reign.

In its elm trees was, in 1900, the sole remaining rookery of central London, averaging twenty or thirty nests each year.

The great Lord Verulam, when plain Mr. Francis Bacon, directed the laying out of the gardens, and, amongst other trees, is said to have planted a catalpa from which the present one is descended.

In 1815, the Secretary of the American Minister in London secured a cutting from this tree and had it "struck" by a Chelsea nurseryman.

As soon as it was safe to travel, he sent it to his father who lived near Washington, by whom it was planted in his garden, and was in 1900 double the size of its parent.

Its owner, a lawyer, had a plate attached to its stem, recording the particulars of its birth.

Next: Legal London in 1900: Inns of Chancery