Barnard's Inn, Holborn.

was stated , had ever belonged here ; but this does not agree with what Stow tells us , or , indeed , with the subsequent admission that during the latter portion of the seventeenth century a reader in Law would occasionally come over from Gray ' s Inn . But the library was afterwards sold , as consisting of " a few old books which were of no use ; " and all traces of earlier condition or constitution of the Inn rapidly disappeared . A treasurer and a secretaryit

, is true , responded to the call to go before the Royal Commission . But they had little story to tell other than that the account books of the Inn covered a period dating from more than three hundred years ago ; and that the property was held under a lease renewable every fourteen years at a fine of £ 1400 . Their rent-roll then brought in an income of the yearly value of about £ 1000 . Turning out of Holborn opposite Furnival ' s Inn , through an insignificant

though substantially built gateway , over which appear the date anel letters , 1758 , P . R . W ., we walk along a narrow passage into the first and outer court , with a brick archway at its south-eastern corner . This court has for its southern side the archway and diminutive Hall of red brick which are shown in my sketch . The Hall , as will be observed , has a very plain elevation , and is unusually well lighted with side-latticed windows and a central lanthorn . Though not especially remarkable in any other way , the Hall forms an interesting feature in a district which , including its more attractive neighbour—Staple Inn—where Johnson wrote his " little story book , " as he termed his

Eastern tale—is as yet untouched by the Apollyon of utilit y and improvement . It has , however , a pleasing interior , fitted and decorated in the customary manner , and adorned with portraits of King Charles IL , Lord Burghley , Lord Verulam , the Lord-Keeper Coventry , and Lord Chief Justice Holt . Its dimensions do not exceed a plan of about thirty-six feet by twenty feet , with a height of thirty feet . The coats of arms of past Principals , in stained glass ,

ornament the side windows . But a hi gh wall , which shuts off its northern side , and a hideous yellow brick structure forming its entrance from the south , greatly disfigure the exterior of the Hall . Beyond the middle and smallest quadrangle , which is almost wholly occupied by the yellow brick entrance to the Hall , is a larger court , having at its south-eastern corner the Jacobean buildings represented in my other drawing . The alchemist lived in the

second floor chambers of the staircase No . 2 . The mullious above the windows , with the overhanging upper story and two bays on the right , are very picturesque . A large tree stands equidistant from the three entrance doorways . There are buildings of a more modern age on the western side of this , the furthest court from Holborn , and they also have trees planted before their doors . Charles Dickens , in Great Expectations , indulges in a few

characteristic strokes of humour at the expense of Barnard ' s Inn , but his pleasantry is apjilicable to scores of places that have been suffered to fall into neglect and decay . Here , as elsewhere , his graphic pen seems to me to miss the true genius loci . W . E . MELLIKEN .