ir Peter Lely formerly
used, and I had lived in alone for divers years. We were so much
together, and my incumbrances so small, that so large a house might hold
us both." Roger was a practicing barrister and Recorder of Bristol.

During his latter years Sir John Bramston (the autobiographer) kept
house in Greek Street, Soho.

In the time of Charles II. the wealthy lawyers often maintained suburban
villas, where they enjoyed the air and pastimes of the country. When his
wife's health failed, Francis North took a villa for her at Hammersmith,
"for the advantage of better air, which he thought beneficial for her;"
and whilst his household tarried there, he never slept at his chambers
in town, "but always went home to his family, and was seldom an evening
without company agreeable to him." In his latter years, Chief Justice
Pemberton had a rural mansion in Highgate, where his death occurred on
June 10, 1699, in the 74th year of his age. A pleasant chapter might be
written on the suburban seats of our great lawyers from the Restoration
down to the present time. Lord Mansfield's 'Kenwood' is dear to all who
are curious in legal _ana_. Charles Yorke had a villa at Highgate, where
he entertained his political and personal friends. Holland, the
architect, built a villa at Dulwich for Lord Thurlow; and in consequence
of a quarrel between the Chancellor and the builder, the former took
such a dislike to the house, that after its completion he never slept a
night in it, though he often passed his holidays in a small lodge
standing in the grounds of the villa. "Lord Thurlow," asked a lady of
him, as he was leaving the Queen's Drawing-room, "when are you going
into your new house?" "Madam," answered the surly Chancellor, incensed
by her curiosity, "the Queen has asked me that impudent question, and I
would not answer her; I will not tell you." For years Loughborough and
Erskine had houses in Hampstead. "In Lord Mansfield's time," Erskine
once said to Lord Campbell, "although the King's Bench monopolized all
the common-law business, the court often rose at one or two o'clock--the
papers, special, crown, and peremptory, being cleared; and then I
refreshed myself by a drive to my villa at Hampstead." It was on
Hampstead Heath that Loughborough, meeting Erskine in the dusk, said,
"Erskine, you must not take Paine's brief;" and received the prompt
reply, "But I have been retained, and I will take it, by G-d!" Much of
that which is most p