ly
assumed the name of Middleton in the beginning of the thirteenth century,
on the occasion of its representative marrying a rich Shropshire heiress
of that name, traces descent.

The wolf of Chirk is a Cambrian not a Gothic wolf, and though "a wolf of
battle," is the wolf not of Biddulph but of Ryred.

CHAPTER LV

A Visitor--Apprenticeship to the Law--Croch Daranau--Lope de Vega--No
Life like the Traveller's.

One morning as I sat alone a gentleman was announced. On his entrance I
recognised in him the magistrate's clerk, owing to whose good word, as it
appeared to me, I had been permitted to remain during the examination
into the affair of the wounded butcher. He was a stout, strong-made man,
somewhat under the middle height, with a ruddy face, and very clear, grey
eyes. I handed him a chair, which he took, and said that his name was
R---, and that he had taken the liberty of calling, as he had a great
desire to be acquainted with me. On my asking him his reason for that
desire he told me that it proceeded from his having read a book of mine
about Spain, which had much interested him.

"Good," said I, "you can't give an author a better reason for coming to
see him than being pleased with his book. I assure you that you are most
welcome."

After a little general discourse I said that I presumed he was in the
law.

"Yes," said he, "I am a member of that much-abused profession."

"And unjustly abused," said I; "it is a profession which abounds with
honourable men, and in which I believe there are fewer scamps than in any
other. The most honourable men I have ever known have been lawyers; they
were men whose word was their bond, and who would have preferred ruin to
breaking it. There was my old master, in particular, who would have died
sooner than broken his word. God bless him! I think I see him now with
his bald, shining pate, and his finger on an open page of 'Preston's
Conveyancing.'"

"Sure you are not a limb of the law?" said Mr R---.

"No," said I, "but I might be, for I served an apprenticeship to it."

"I am glad to hear it," said Mr R---, shaking me by the hand. "Take my
advice, come and settle at Llangollen and be my partner."

"If I did," said I, "I am afraid that our partnership would be of short
duration; you would find me too eccentric and flighty for the law. Have
you a good practice?" I demanded after a pause.

"I have no reason to complain of it," said he, with a cont