s
_Doubts_, Lord Fountainhall's _Historical Observes_, carry a more
imposing sound in their titles than if those one-time indispensable
works of reference had been simply named Nisbet on Legal Doubts, and
Lauder on Historical Observations of Memorable Events.

The selection of a title was an important matter with these old judges.
When Lauder was raised to the Bench, his estate to the south-east of
Edinburgh was called Woodhead; but it would never have done for a
Senator of the College of Justice to be known as "Lord Woodhead," so the
name of the estate was changed to Fountainhall, and as Lord Fountainhall
he took his seat among "the Fifteen" as the full Bench of judges was
then termed.

These old-time judges with their rugged ferocity, corruption, and
occasionally brave words and deeds, in a great measure present to us now
a miniature history of Scotland in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. "Show me the man, and I will show you the law," one is
reported to have said, meaning that the litigant with the longest purse
was pretty certain to win his case in the long run. They delighted in
long arguments, and highly appreciated bewilderment in pleadings; "Dinna
be brief," cried one judge when an advocate modestly asked to be briefly
heard in a case in which he appeared as junior counsel. But the tendency
to delay cases in the old Courts stretched beyond all reasonable lengths
and became a scandal to the country. It was not a question of a month or
even a year. Years passed and still cases remained undecided, some even
were passed on from one generation to another--a litigant by his will
handing on his plea in the Court to his successor along with his estate.
This protracted delay in deciding causes formed the subject of that
highly amusing and characteristic skit on the Scottish judges for which
Boswell was largely responsible:

THE COURT OF SESSION GARLAND

PART FIRST

The Bill charged on was payable at sight
And decree was craved by Alexander Wight;[1]
But, because it bore a penalty in case of failzie
It therefore was null contended Willie Baillie.[2]

The Ordinary not chusing to judge it at random
Did with the minutes make avizandum.
And as the pleadings were vague and windy
His Lordship ordered memorials _hinc inde_.

We setting a stout heart to a stey brae
Took into the cause Mr. David Rae:[3]
Lord Auchenleck,[4] however, repelled our defence,
A