use--for such a business it would indeed be an excellent
situation; you may easily imagine a couple of burly farmers coming up
from Farnham or Windlesham to the Cattle Show, and walking over the
bridge, hot and thirsty. 'Hallo!' says one; 'I say, Jim, here's a nice
public; what d'ye say to goin' in and havin' a glass o' bitter? It's a
goodish pull over this 'ere bridge."

"'With all my heart,' says Jim; and in they go.

"There you see the advantage of being on the highroad. But now, let
us see these two stalwart farmers coming along, and--instead of the
handsome public and the bitter ale there is this shop, where they sell
medical arrangements--can you imagine one of them saying to the other,
'I say, Jim, here's a very nice medical shop; what d'ye say to going
in and having a truss?'"

The argument considerably reduced the compensation, but what it lacked
in money the claimant got in laughter.

Sometimes I led a witness who was an expert valuer for a claimant to
such a gross exaggeration of the value of a business as to stamp the
claim with fraud, and so destroy his evidence altogether.

Sir Henry Hunt used to nod with apparent approval at every piece of
evidence which showed any kind of exaggeration, but every nod was
worth, as a rule, a handsome reduction to the other side.

I shall never forget an attorney's face who, having been offered
L10,000 for a property, stood out for L13,000.

It was a claim by a poulterers' company for eight houses that were
taken by a railway company. I relied entirely on my speech, as I often
did, because the threadbare cross-examinations were almost, by this
time, things of course, as were the figures themselves mere results of
true calculations on false bases.

This attorney, who had, perhaps, never had a compensation case before,
was quite a great man, and took the arbitrator's assenting nods as so
much cash down.

So encouraged, indeed, was he that he became almost impudent to me,
and gave me no little annoyance by his impertinent asides. At last I
looked at him good-humouredly, and politely requested him, as though
he were the court itself, to suspend his judgment while I had the
honour of addressing the arbitrator for twenty minutes, "at the end of
which time I promise to make you, sir," said I, "the most miserable
man in existence."

I was supported in this appeal by the arbitrator, who hoped he would
not interrupt Mr. Hawkins.

As I proceeded the attorney fidgeted, pu