know how well deserved it was, of not being
much given to hospitality. He was never covetous, and he
was very fond of society and conversation. But I fancy he
had some fashions of his own in housekeeping which he thought
were not quite up to the ways of modern life. At any rate,
he was, so far as I know, never known to invite any of his
brethren upon the Bench or of the Bar to visit him at his
house, with one exception. One of the Judges told me that
after a hard day's work in court the Judges sat in consultation
till between nine and ten o'clock in the evening, and he walked
away from the Court-House with Judge Metcalf. The Judge went
along with him past the Tremont House, where my informant
was staying. As they walked up School Street, he said: "Why,
Judge Metcalf, I didn't know you went this way. I thought
you lived out on the Neck somewhere." "No, sir," said Judge
Metcalf, "I live at number so-and-so Charles Street, and I will
say to you what I heard a man say the first night I moved
into my present house. I heard a great noise in the street after
midnight, and got up and put my head out of the window. There
was a man lying down on the sidewalk struggling, and another
man, who seemed to be a policeman, was on top of him holding
him down. The fellow with his back to the ground said: 'Let
me get up, --- d--- you,' The policeman answered: 'I sha'n't
let you get up till you tell me what your name is and where
you live.' The fellow answered, 'My name is Jerry Mahoney,
--- d--- you, and I live at No. 54 Cambridge Street, --- d---
you, where I'd be happy to see you, --- d--- you, if you dare
to call." That was the only instance known to his judicial
brothers of Judge Metcalf's inviting a friend to visit him.

Judge Metcalf's legal opinions will read, I think, in the
future, as well as those of any Judge of his time. They are
brief, compact, written in excellent English, and precisely
fit the case before him without any extraneous or superfluous
matter. He would have been a very great Judge, indeed, if
his capacity for the conduct of jury trials and dealing with
_nisi-prius_ business in general had equalled his ability
to write opinions on abstract questions.

John Davis was never a Judge. But a few words about him may
well find a place here. He had long since withdrawn from
the practice of law when I came to Worcester. He remained
in the Senate of the United States until March 4, 1853. But
the tr