of the law lasted only one month, and consisted in the reading of Coke
upon Littleton and of the Virginia laws.[18]

Concerning the encounter of this obscure and raw country youth with
the accomplished men who examined him as to his fitness to receive a
license to practice law, there are three primary narratives,--two by
Jefferson, and a third by Judge John Tyler. In his famous talk with
Daniel Webster and the Ticknors at Monticello, in 1824, Jefferson
said: "There were four examiners,--Wythe, Pendleton, Peyton Randolph,
and John Randolph. Wythe and Pendleton at once rejected his
application; the two Randolphs were, by his importunity, prevailed
upon to sign the license; and, having obtained their signatures, he
again applied to Pendleton, and after much entreaty, and many promises
of future study, succeeded also in obtaining his. He then turned out
for a practicing lawyer."[19]

In a memorandum[20] prepared nearly ten years before the conversation
just mentioned, Jefferson described somewhat differently the incidents
of Henry's examination:--

"Two of the examiners, however, Peyton and John Randolph,
men of great facility of temper, signed his license with as
much reluctance as their dispositions would permit them to
show. Mr. Wythe absolutely refused. Rob. C. Nicholas refused
also at first; but on repeated importunities, and promises
of future reading, he signed. These facts I had afterwards
from the gentlemen themselves; the two Randolphs
acknowledging he was very ignorant of law, but that they
perceived him to be a young man of genius, and did not doubt
he would soon qualify himself."[21]

Long afterward, and when all this anxious affair had become for
Patrick Henry an amusing thing of the past, he himself, in the
confidence of an affectionate friendship, seems to have related one
remarkable phase of his experience to Judge John Tyler, by whom it was
given to Wirt. One of the examiners was "Mr. John Randolph, who was
afterwards the king's attorney-general for the colony,--a gentleman of
the most courtly elegance of person and manners, a polished wit, and a
profound lawyer. At first, he was so much shocked by Mr. Henry's very
ungainly figure and address, that he refused to examine him.
Understanding, however, that he had already obtained two signatures,
he entered with manifest reluctance on the business. A very short time
was sufficient to satisfy him of the er