others
engaged. Mr. Buzfuz, Q.C., pushes his way into Court, surrounds himself
with briefs and other documents, when some mysterious harlequin of the
Law Courts changes Tomkins _v._ Snooks to Court 4, and calls upon Brown
_v._ Jones, who are packed away in Court 3, waiting their turn. Buzfuz
gets very angry, and bustles off to Court 4. In fact, getting your case
into Court reminded me forcibly of that amusing toy, so popular then,
called 'Pigs in Clover'--wigs in clover, I was nearly writing. I
apologise at once for the mere thought. We were transferred from one
Court to another, and our friends sat out a case in the Court advertised
to try ours, wondering what on earth 'The Prince of Journalists' and I
had to do with 'chops and tomato sauce.' What followed has been pretty
fully reported, so I need not dwell upon it. Indeed, I could not live in
the frightful atmosphere of those Courts, and would gladly pay twice
five pounds to be allowed to sit on the roof if ever I find myself a
defendant again.

[Illustration: MY HAT.]

[Illustration: THE PLAINTIFF.]

[Illustration: THE EDITOR OF _PUNCH_ SUPPORTS ME.]

"According to the reports, 'the plaintiff was supported by his wife, and
the defendant by the editor of _Punch_.' The solemn occasion demanded a
certain amount of gravity, which was particularly difficult for me to
retain, as my 'supporter,' although fully alive to the tremendous
bearings of the case and the importance of the issues, failed to hide in
his expression those 'happy thoughts' that flow ceaselessly through his
fertile brain. The outward effect was a see-saw antic with his imposing
eyebrows--a proof to me that his sense of the ridiculous had got the
better of his gravity. 'Put on your gloves at once,' he whispered
impressively to me. 'Why?' I asked. 'Because you may then leave the
court with clean hands!' (The 'putting on the gloves' must not be taken
in a double sense.) But this is a digression. You merely ask for
sketches in Court. Well, I send you my recollection of Mr. Kemp, Q.C.,
trying to be very angry with me; of my 'brother caricaturist' (_vide_
reports), Mr. Lockwood, struggling to be very angry with Mr. Kemp, and
pointing to the defendant, 'That miscreant! (note the effect upon me),
and the Judge very serious with everybody. As an antidote, I was
spoiling a beautiful sheet of white blotting-paper by drawing
recollections of the donkey I was studying in the country when I was
summoned to town t