Fabian Philips tells me (1683) that about sixty-nine yeares since
there were but two attorneys in Worcestershire, sc. Langston and
Dowdeswell; and they be now in every market towne, and goe to
marketts; and he believes there are a hundred.
In Henry 6th time (q. if not in Hen. 7?) there was a complaint to the
Parliament by the Norfolk people that whereas formerly there were in
that county but five or six attorneys, that now they are exceedingly
encreased, and that they went to markets and bred contention. The
judges were ordered to rectify this grievance, but they fell asleep
and never awak't since. - Vide the Parliament Roll. [See the above note.
In page 12 (ante) Aubrey states that the Norfolk people are the "most
litigious" of any in England. - J. B.] 'Tis thought that in England
there are at this time near three thousand;* but there is a rule in
hawking, the more spaniells the more game. They doe now rule and
governe the lawyers [barristers] and judges. They will take a hundred
pounds with a clarke.
*[There are now upwards of three thousand attorneys in practice in
the metropolis alone, to whom the celebrated remark of Alderman
Beckford to King George the Third may be justly applied, with the
substitution of another word for "the Crown", - "the influence of
lawyers has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished."
- J. B.]
PART II.-CHAPTER XVII.
OF FATALITIES OF FAMILIES AND PLACES.
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