the people in his employment, with their wives and children, partook of his roast beef and plum-pudding; and when the warehouse was cleared for the ball, the first admired performance was a pas seul― Master Jacky's hornpipe.'

When William approached his fifteenth birthday, his father intimated to Mr. Moises that he meant to take the boy from school, and bind him apprentice to himself. Mr. Moises expressed much regret-assured Mr. Scott that the lad had in him that which must ensure success in any of the learned professions and suggested that, from the accident of his birthplace, he was entitled to be a competitor for one of certain scholarships at University College, Oxford, set apart for natives of the bishoprick.' Without some such help, Mr. Scott could not in prudence, at that stage of his own career, have entertained the scheme of sending a son to college. William was delighted at the new prospect―tried, and won; and this was the great turning-point in the fortunes of both the illustrious brothers; for William Scott covered himself with honour in his early academical career, and before John was old enough for leaving Mr. Moises, had become fellow and tutor of his college-one of the established authorities and principal ornaments of Oxford. He had watched over John's progress with at once a fraternal and a parental zeal, and now urged on their father to repeat the experiment which already, in his own case, had proved eminently successful. John's ambition had been naturally stirred in that direction; and in May, 1766, he set out for Alma Mater, to be entered as a commoner under the tutorship of William.

'I have seen it remarked,' says Lord Eldon in his Anecdote Book (1827), 'that something which in early youth captivates attention, influences future life in all stages. I came up from Newcastle in a coach then denominated, on account of its quick travelling, as travelling was then estimated, a fly: being, as well as I remember, nevertheless, three or four days and nights on the road. There was no such velocity as to endanger overturning, or other mischief. On the panels of the carriage were painted the words Sat cito, si sat bene, [i. e., quick enough, if well enough]-words which made a most lasting impression on my mind, and have had their influence upon my conduct in all subsequent life. Their effect was heightened by circumstances during and immediately after the journey. A Quaker, who was a fellow-traveller, stopped the coach at the inn at Tuxford, desired the chambermaid to come to the coach-door, and gave her a sixpence, telling her that he forgot to give it her when he slept there two years before. I was a very saucy boy, and said to him, "Friend, have you seen the motto on this coach ?" "No.". "Then look at it; for I think giving her only sixpence now is neither sat cito nor sat bene." After I got to town, my brother met me at the White Horse in Fetter Lane, Holborn, then the great Oxford house. He took

me

me to see the play at Drury Lane. Love played Jobson in the farce, and Miss Pope played Nell. When we came out of the house, it rained hard. There were then few hackney-coaches, and we got both into one sedan-chair. Turning out of Fleet Street into Fetter Lane, there was a sort of contest between chairmen. Our sedan-chair was overset with us in it. This, thought I, is more than sat cito, and it certainly is not sat bene. In short, in all that I have had to do in future life, professional and judicial, I have always felt the effect of this early admonition on the panels of the vehicle which conveyed me from school, Sat cito, si sat bene. It was the impression of this which made me that deliberative judge-as some have said, too deliberative;-and reflection upon all that is past will not authorise me to deny that, whilst I have been thinking sat cito, si sat bene, I may not have sufficiently recollected sat bene, si sat cito.'

Lord Stowell used to tell that when he had to introduce John at Oxford, he was quite ashamed of the mere boyishness of his appearance he was not quite fifteen; but he had been so well prepared, and continued to use such diligence, that before the lapse of a year, he stood for and carried a fellowship in University College, open to natives of Northumberland; and though there is no reason to suppose that he ever was looked upon as at all likely to rival his elder brother in classical attainments, the strength of his understanding, and variety and accuracy of his information, had raised his character high before he took his first degree. In the twentieth year of his age he won the prize for the Essay in English Prose: subject, The advantages and disadvantages of foreign travel;' but so shy was he, that friends had actually to shove him into the rostrum when the production was to be recited at the Commemoration. Among his contemporaries at University were several persons subsequently of high eminence-among others, Sir William Jones, Lord Moira, and Mr. Windham. John Scott appears to have been through life regarded with kindness by all who had mixed familiarly with him at this period; and not a few of them profited largely by his remembrance. No temperance medal was, in those days, among the usual objects of Oxonian ambition. The Anecdote Book' has some sad stories about Doctors and Dons in their cups; and Mr. Twiss advisedly quotes these before producing this paragraph of his own.

'When Christ Church meadow was overflowed and sufficiently frozen for skaiting, people used to ply on the ice with kegs of brandy and other cordials for the skaiters. John Scott, then an under-graduate, was skaiting over a part of the meadow where the ice, being infirm, broke in, and let him into a ditch, up to his neck in water. When he had scrambled out, and was dripping from the collar and oozing from the stockings, a brandy-vender shuffled towards him and recommended a

glass

glass of something warm; upon which Edward Norton, of University College, a son of Lord Grantley, sweeping past, cried out to the retailer: "None of your brandy for that wet young man-he never drinks but when he is dry."'-vol. i. p. 54.

Very near the end of his life, when Lord Abingdon brought some motion about the game laws before the House of Lords, the Ex-Chancellor Eldon took occasion to confess, that probably no one had poached more diligently on that noble family's preserves than himself. They are very near Oxford. But it is not likely that he had done great damage. Somebody asked Lord Stowell once, whether his brother was a good shot. He answered with his usual sly gravity, I believe he kills a good deal of-time.'

After taking his degree he continued to reside as fellow, meaning at the proper age to take holy orders, and looking to a college living as his ultimate provision in life. Such would, probably, have been the issue, but for almighty love. Spending the long vacation of 1771 in the North, he saw, it is said, for the first time, and at some distance from Newcastle (in Sedgefield church, to wit), Miss Elizabeth Surtees, the daughter of a leading banker in his native town, and was instantly smitten with a lasting passion. He had, it seems, been susceptible in this way even when at school. According to the Anecdote Book he was always in love.' Miss Surtees was only in her seventeenth year, but already talked of as the Newcastle Beauty.' The Oxonian's personal advantages were not unworthy of a beauty's notice he was a singularly handsome young man, and, as all who remember him in advanced age will also believe without difficulty, a most agreeable one. The Banker was alarmed, and sent his daughter on a visit to a relation in the neighbourhood of Henley-upon-Thames, in order that she might be out of John Scott's way; but she had not been recalled when the Oxford term commenced, and Oxford is within an easy lover's journey' of Henley. Next summer Mr. John again visited Newcastle: he found it generally believed that a very rich old gentleman, recently a widower, was numbered among the numerous aspirants for the fair Elizabeth's favour, and that his pretensions were supported warmly by Mr. Surtees. Whatever accelerated the romance, it galloped to a conclusion; for on a moonless night of September, 1772, Miss Bessy trusted herself to a ladder: a post-chaise was ready-the fugitives were safe across the border before either of them was missed, and married early next day at Blackshields-not, however, by a blacksmith, nor even by a justice of peace, but by an Episcopal minister. The couple immediately returned southwards, and reaching Morpeth at nightfall, were greeted with the announcement that a marching regiment

had

had just halted there, and that there was no lodging to be had for money or love. The landlady of the inn, however, on being made aware of their circumstances, behaved herself like a Christian woman, and abdicated her own chamber. When their evasion was discovered, great was the wrath at the banker's; not less the consternation in the chare-foot; and the coal-fitter, after reading the letter which Mr. John had left behind him, looked so black that his daughters were all drowned in tears, expecting hard resolutions. In the course of two days, however, the father melted, and when the fugitives drew their curtains on the third morning at the Nag's Head in Morpeth, the first object that met their eyes was a familiar one, the sure herald of tidings from home-the favourite dog of the bridegroom's younger brother. Henry was in search of them, charged with a missive which began with severity, but ended with an invitation to Love Lane, where the hero and heroine took up their quarters accordingly the same evening. Mr. Surtees, on understanding where the culprits had been so speedily sheltered, proclaimed his conviction that all the Scotts had been accomplices in the abduction; and for some time would listen to no protestation whatever on that subject.

It is said (and Mr. Twiss seems to believe the story) that a wealthy and childless old citizen of Newcastle called on the coalfitter at this crisis, and after expressing his apprehensions that Mr. Surtees was too proud to relent, offered to provide at once for the young couple, by taking John Scott into partnership with himself, as a grocer; that both father and son received this communication with much thankfulness; but that John considered it due to his elder brother that his opinion should be obtained before a decision was made; and that William Scott's answer alone turned the scale against the figs.

Ere long feelings softened, and matters were arranged. On the 7th January, 1773, Mr. Surtees covenanted to pay 10007. as his daughter's portion, with five per cent. interest until payment; and Mr. Scott very handsomely settled 20007. in like manner, on his son John. The couple were then remarried in facie ecclesiæ, in presence of both families, and set off for the south; where,' writes the future Chancellor at the time, I have now two strings to my bow.' Though his fellowship was legally determined by his marriage, it was customary to allow a year of grace,' during which such a marriage remained tacitly unobserved; so that had a college living fallen within the twelvemonths, he might accept it, and take orders according to his original plan. This was one string. He no doubt owed the other to his brother's advice and assistance. He entered himself at the Middle Temple,

6

with the purpose of pursuing a legal career, in case no benefice should turn up during the year of grace. Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Chambers, a friend of both the brothers, and, like themselves, trained at Newcastle School and University College, was at this time Master of New Inn Hall, and Vinerian Professor of Law. He had the power of delegating the duties of his chair, and he now appointed John Scott Deputy Professor, with an allowance of 60l. per annum, and the use of the Master's lodgings at New Inn Hall, of which Hall the Master happened to be the only member. As Chambers's deputy he had merely to read his MS. lectures, the drift of which, as the Anecdote Book' confesses, he often could not in the least comprehend; but that could not have been the case as to the very first discourse that he was called on to deliver from the Vinerian desk, for this was on the statute of Philip and Mary touching the Abduction of Maidens. Mr. Wm. Scott, moreover, was very willing to have his brother's assistance in the tutorizing at University, for which John no doubt had remuneration. His eldest son was born in New Inn Hall before the year of grace expired. No benefice had fallen: the fellowship was then declared vacant; and all thoughts of the Church were laid aside.

The establishment at New Inn Hall was so convenient in his circumstances that he remained there till he had eaten nearly all the requisite terms at the Temple. He finally left Oxford in 1775, and taking a small house in Cursitor-street, pursued with redoubled zeal the legal studies, in which he had made no trivial progress even before his bow lost its first string. He had, it seems, mastered Coke upon Littleton,' by incessant reperusal and analysis, so thoroughly, that the whole book had become part of his mind; and to the last he continued of opinion that every English lawyer, with a view to ultimate economy of time, should commence with the same stiff acquisition. All notions of royal roads to learning and law made easy, he cordially despised. Nil magnum absque labore. On settling in town his character and circumstances being made known to Mr. Duane, a distinguished conveyancer (a Roman Catholic) connected with Northumberland, that gentleman handsomely offered to take him as a pupil without a fee; and he attended Mr. Duane with extreme diligence, to his vast benefit. He could not afford to fee a special pleader, but obtained possession of a large MS. collection of precedents, and copied out three folio volumes of them with his own hand. In a word, no branch of the fit preparation deterred him; and perhaps Mr. Twiss could not have rendered a more important service to the law students of the present day than by the minute record he has now presented of the great Chancellor's preliminary