this particular
occasion, but I think he was; there were really so many illustrious
names that it is impossible at this distance of time to be sure of
every one. Macready was a great friend of Bulwer, and with Dickens
and others was engaged in giving stage representations for charitable
purposes in London and the provinces, so that it is at least possible
I may be confounding Knebworth with some other place where I was one
of the company.

Amongst us also was another whose name will always command the
admiration of his countrymen, Douglas Jerrold. There were also Mark
Lemon, Frank Stone, and another Royal Academician, John Leech,
Frederick Dickens, Radcliffe, Eliot Yorke, Henry Hale, and others
whose names escape my memory at the present moment.

No greater honour could be shown to a young barrister than to invite
him to meet so distinguished a company, and what was even more
gratifying to my vanity, asking me to act with them in the
performance. There were many ladies, some of them of the greatest
distinction, but without the leave of those who are their immediate
relatives, which I have no time now to obtain, I forbear to mention
their names in this work.

The business--for business it was, as well as the greatest
pleasure--was no little strain on my energies, for I was now obtaining
a large amount of work, and appearing in court every day. I had the
orthodox number of devils--at least seven--to assist me, and every
morning they came and received the briefs they were to hold.

Alas! of the illustrious people I have mentioned all are dead, all
save one lady and myself.

When will such a company meet again?

I was no sooner in the midst of Knebworth's delightful associations
than I was anxious to return to the toilsome duties of the Law Courts,
with their prosaic pleadings and windbag eloquence. I was wanted in
several consultations long before the courts met, so that it was idle
to suppose I could stay the night at Knebworth. But what would I have
given to be able to do so?

Not my briefs! They were the business of my life, without which the
Knebworth pleasures would not have been possible. I never looked with
any other feeling than that of pleasure on my work, and whenever the
question arose I decided without hesitation in favour of the more
profitable but less delightful occupation.

But I managed a compromise now and then. For instance, after I had
done my duty in the consultations, and seen my work fair