Inns of Court in 1900: The Temple

In the Temple, since the reign of Edward III, lawyers have dwelt in undisturbed security, save during the Wat Tyler rebellion, when their goods were burnt by the mob; and there they remain to this day as an incorporated society of the "students and of the laws of England," by virtue of confirmatory patent granted by King James I.

The Temple covered a greater area than any other Inn; Fleet Street on the north, the Thames on the south, Whitefriars on the east, and Essex Street on the west, being its boundaries.

It consisted of two divisions, the eastern and western called the "Inner" and "Middle," approached respectively from Fleet Street by Inner Temple and Middle Temple Lanes.

Inner Temple Hall was modern, much larger than the old one which dated back to Edward III's time, and it was arranged with all the latest improvements in lighting, etc.

Its chapel, shared by the Middle Temple, was the famous Round Church.

The library on the terrace facing the garden was well stocked with books, and was a particularly cosy retreat.

The garden was a great feature of the Inner Temple, and the flower-show of the Royal Horticultural Society, held there annually, had come to be a fashionable institution.

In fact, horticulture generally was much encouraged by the Benchers, with the result that in few places were blossoms brighter, chrysanthemums bigger, and turf fresher.

Middle Temple Hall was a noble Elizabethan creation with massive dark oak roof, decorated walls and windows, spacious dais, Renaissance screen, and music gallery.

Here Twelfth Night was performed during Shakespeare's lifetime, and it has witnessed the most sumptuous feastings and revellings.

In both these Halls are pictures worth seeing.

At the river end of Garden Court was the Middle Temple New Library, built in fifteenth-century collegiate style, and very handsome externally.

The Middle Temple garden was also beautifully kept, and every summer the Treasurer and Masters gave a delightful "At Home and Garden Party," to which ladies were invited, and brightened the scene in their hundreds.

Pleasingly intricate, sheltered in winter, and shady in summer, is the Temple when once you are fairly in it, but, like a law­suit, it is not so easy to get out of, and you may emerge at the very opposite point from the one you expected.

You will find plenty of food for the imagination to digest.

In the gardens, for instance, you may picture the exact locality where the fatal rose­plucking took place, described in Shakespeare's King Henry VI, Part I, Act II, Scene iv, where the Earl of Warwick thus assumes the role of seer -

"And here I prophesy, - This brawl today,
Grown to this faction, in the Temple garden,
Shall send, between the red rose and the white,
A thousand souls to death and deadly night."

The very names of the Walks, Rows, and Courts are sufficiently suggestive.

Who has not heard, or read of, King's Bench Walk, Crown Office Row, Figtree Court, Hare Court, Brick Court, Elm Court, Essex Court, Pump Court, Paper Buildings, and beautifully cool Fountain Court with its slender jet of water, a sight that makes existence endurable even when the thermometer in Fleet Street marks 90° in the shade!

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