W. BLAKE ODGERS, K.C.
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E reach to-night the last of this course oflectures on the Inns of Court and of Chancery.We have heard with delight a Master of eachBench descant on the glories of his Inn, telling usits history, and enumerating the great judges andlawyers whose names are written on its rolls andemblazoned in the windows of its Hall. To mehas been assigned a humbler, but at the same timea somewhat lighter and pleasanter task. I am totell you to-night something of the literary menwho have been connected with each of the fourInns. And I am permitted to give a wide mean-ing to the phrase " literary men " ; though I shall vi LITERARY MEN 221 not, as a rule, include in the term the writers oflaw books. Of all the literary men connected with any Innof Court, the greatest is the man whose merits Mr.Duke so eloquently extolled last week — the manto whom Gray's Inn and Mr. Balfour will do honourthis week1 — Francis Bacon, the man whom Tenny-son describes as " large browed Verulam, thefirst of those who know " — a brilliant essayist, anacute philosopher, an active politician, a learnedlawyer — a man who could write three law bookswithout permanently injuring his style — a man whohas titles to honour so many and so various that itis unnecessary to claim for him alien laurels. Somuch for Francis Bacon, whom Mr. Duke dealtwith so fully last Monday. The next great literary man connected withGray's Inn is Sir Philip Sidney. He is famousfor a romantic poem in prose called " The Countessof Pembroke's Arcadia." The countess was hissister and she helped him to paraphrase thePsalms. He also wrote "An Apologie for Poetrie "and better still a Hundred and Ten Sonnets aboutAstrophel and Stella. He was Astrophel ; Stellawas Penelope Devereux, the sister of the Earl ofEssex. Devereux, as you know, was the familyname of Essex ; that is why Devereux Court ishere, close to Essex Street. None of these sonnets 1 Mr. Balfour unveiled a statue of Francis Bacon in the SouthSquare of Gray's Inn on Thursday, June 27th, 1912.
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