wn
without a tender of the hospitality of that venerable and elegant
gentleman--whose prolonged life exhibited to another generation a
pattern of old gentility, combined with a conscientious and effective
performance of not only the smaller and more graceful duties of life,
which he sweetened and adorned, but also of those graver and higher
tasks which the confidence of his state imposed upon his talents and
learning. To his elegant board naturally came the best and worthiest
of the land. There was found, of equal age with the judge, that very
remarkable man, Dr. Thomas Cooper, replete with all sorts of
knowledge, a living encyclopaedia,--"_Multum ille et terris jactatus et
alto_"--good-tempered, joyous, and of a kindly disposition. There was
Judge Nott, who brought into the social circle the keen, shrewd, and
flashing intellect which distinguished him on the bench. There was
Abram Blanding, a man of affairs, very eminent in his profession of
the law, and of most interesting conversation. There was Professor
Robert Henry, with his elegant, accurate, and classical scholarship.
There were Judges Johnston and Harper, whom we all remember, and
lament, and admire.

These gentlemen and others were called, in the course of a morning
walk of the Chancellor, to meet at dinner, it might be, Mr. Calhoun,
or Captain Basil Hall, or Washington Irving; and amongst these was
sure to be found David J. M'Cord, with his genial vivacity, his
multifarious knowledge, and his inexhaustible store of amusing and
apposite anecdotes. He was the life and the pervading spirit of the
circle,--in short, a general favorite. He was then in large practice
at the bar, and publishing his Reports as State Reporter. His frank
and fine manners were rendered the more attractive by an uncommonly
beautiful physiognomy, which gave him the appearance of great youth.

M'Cord entered upon his profession in co-partnership with Henry
Junius Nott; and when a year or two subsequently, this gentleman,
following the bent of his inclination for literature, quitted the
profession, Mr. M'Cord formed a connection with W. C. Preston,--thus
introducing this gentleman, who had then but just come to Columbia,
into practice. The business of the office was extensive, and the
connexion continued until their diverging paths of life led them away
from the profession. The association was cordial and uninterrupted
throughout, whether professional or social; and the latter did not
ce