A Book About Lawyers

Jeaffreson turns from the courtroom to the private world of the English bar, gathering anecdotes about the households, habits, and manners of lawyers and judges across several centuries. The chapters move by theme rather than by date, taking up lawyers’ houses in the Inns of Court, their loves and marriages, their fees and money troubles, and questions of costume, from wigs and bands to bags and gowns. Later sections turn to music in chambers, amateur theatricals, legal education, and the wit and table talk of the profession. Drawn from memoirs, court gossip, and legal tradition, it reads as social history told through story, thick with famous names and small human detail. First issued in two volumes in 1867, it followed his popular book about doctors. Anyone curious about the life behind the robes will find it companionable and quietly informative.