ejaculated the inquirer. "Yes," growled the judge; "ye've heard, nae
doot, about _Coke upon Littleton_, but I suppose you never before heard
of _Clerk upon Stair_!"

When asked by a friend what was the difference between him and Lord
Eldon, the Lord Chancellor of England, Eldin replied; "Oh, there's only
an 'i' of a difference."

* * * * *

[Illustration: CHARLES HAY, LORD NEWTON.]

Charles Hay (Lord Newton), known in private life as "The Mighty," has
been described by Lord Cockburn as "famous for law, paunch, whist,
claret, and worth." His indulgence in wine and his great bulk made him
slumbrous, and when sitting in Court after getting the gist of a case he
almost invariably fell fast asleep. Yet it is strange to find it
recorded that whenever anything pertinent to the matter under discussion
was said he was immediately wide awake and in full possession of his
reasoning faculties. While a very zealous but inexperienced counsel was
pleading before him, his lordship had been dozing, as usual, for some
time, till at last the young man, supposing him asleep, and confident of
a favourable judgment in his case, stopped short in his pleading and,
addressing the other judges on the Bench, said: "My lords, it is
unnecessary that I should go on, as Lord Newton is fast asleep."--"Ay,
ay," cried Lord Newton, "you will have proof of that by and by"--when,
to the astonishment of the young advocate, after a most luminous view of
the case, he gave a very decided and elaborate judgment against him.

Lord Jeffrey himself declared that he only went to Oxford to improve his
accent, and according to some of the older members of the Bar of his
days, he only lost his Scots accent and did not learn the English. A
story of his early days at the Bar is related to the effect that when
pleading before Lord Newton the judge stopped him and asked in broad
Scots, "Whaur were ye educat', Maister Jawfrey."--"Oxford, my
lord."--"Then I doot ye maun gang back there again, for we can mak'
nocht o' ye here." But Mr. Jeffrey got back his own. For, before the
same judge, happening to speak of an "itinerant violinist," Lord Newton
inquired: "D'ye mean a blin' fiddler?"--"Vulgarly so called, my lord,"
was the reply.

* * * * *

[Illustration: HENRY COCKBURN, LORD COCKBURN.]

Circuit Courts were in Scotland, in the eighteenth and early years of
the nineteenth century (as in England and Ire