d as it were the elements of the law;
who, profiting therein, as they grow to ripeness so are they admitted
into the greater inns of the same study, called the inns of court."
And in these inns of both kinds, he goes on to tell us, the knights
and barons, with other grandees and noblemen of the realm, did use to
place their children, though they did not desire to have them
thoroughly learned in the law, or to get their living by it's
practice: and that in his time there were about two thousand students
at these several inns, all of whom he informs us were _filii
nobilium_, or gentlemen born.

[Footnote y: _c._ 49.]

[Footnote z: 3 Rep. pref.]

[Footnote a: _ibid._]

HENCE it is evident, that (though under the influence of the monks our
universities neglected this study, yet) in the time of Henry the sixth
it was thought highly necessary and was the universal practice, for
the young nobility and gentry to be instructed in the originals and
elements of the laws. But by degres [Transcriber's Note: degrees] this
custom has fallen into disuse; so that in the reign of queen Elizabeth
sir Edward Coke[b] does not reckon above a thousand students, and the
number at present is very considerably less. Which seems principally
owing to these reasons: first, because the inns of chancery being now
almost totally filled by the inferior branch of the profession, they
are neither commodious nor proper for the resort of gentlemen of any
rank or figure; so that there are now very rarely any young students
entered at the inns of chancery: secondly, because in the inns of
court all sorts of regimen and academical superintendance, either with
regard to morals or studies, are found impracticable and therefore
entirely neglected: lastly, because persons of birth and fortune,
after having finished their usual courses at the universities, have
seldom leisure or resolution sufficient to enter upon a new scheme of
study at a new place of instruction. Wherefore few gentlemen now
resort to the inns of court, but such for whom the knowlege of
practice is absolutely necessary; such, I mean, as are intended for
the profession: the rest of our gentry, (not to say our nobility also)
having usually retired to their estates, or visited foreign kingdoms,
or entered upon public life, without any instruction in the laws of
the land; and indeed with hardly any opportunity of gaining
instruction, unless it can be afforded them in these seats of
learning.