A Guide to the Inns of Court and Chancery: With Notices of Their Ancient Discipline, Rules, Orders, and Customs, Readings, Moots, Masques, Revels, and Entertainments

A Guide To The Inns Of Court And Chancery: With Notices Of Their Ancient Discipline, Rules, Orders, And Customs, Readings, Moots, Masques, Revels, And Entertainments by Robert Richard Pearce. This volume provides a historical survey of the Inns of Court and their sister institution, the Inns of Chancery, tracing their origins from early schools of law in England through the formation of the four Inns of Court and Chancery. It records the evolution of legal education, including admissions, keeping terms, and calls to the bar, and surveys ancient practices such as Readings, Moots, and Masques, as well as later entertainments (Revels) that enriched professional culture. The work documents institutional life across Lincoln’s Inn, Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Gray’s Inn, and Staple Inn, detailing their halls, libraries, chapels, and arms, the office of Benchers, and the social dimensions of the legal profession, including the masque to celebrate royalty. It combines documentary evidence with narrative history, presenting eminent jurists and public figures associated with the Inns, and serves as a reference on medieval and early modern English law and legal education.