I am not quite sure whether Macready was present on this particular occasion, but I think he was; there were really so many illustrious names that it is impossible at this distance of time to be sure of every one.  Macready was a great friend of Bulwer, and with Dickens and others was engaged in giving stage representations for charitable purposes in London and the provinces, so that it is at least possible I may be confounding Knebworth with some other place where I was one of the company.

Amongst us also was another whose name will always command the admiration of his countrymen, Douglas Jerrold.  There were also Mark Lemon, Frank Stone, and another Royal Academician, John Leech, Frederick Dickens, Radcliffe, Eliot Yorke, Henry Hale, and others whose names escape my memory at the present moment.

No greater honour could be shown to a young barrister than to invite him to meet so distinguished a company, and what was even more gratifying to my vanity, asking me to act with them in the performance.  There were many ladies, some of them of the greatest distinction, but without the leave of those who are their immediate relatives, which I have no time now to obtain, I forbear to mention their names in this work.

The business—­for business it was, as well as the greatest pleasure—­was no little strain on my energies, for I was now obtaining a large amount of work, and appearing in court every day.  I had the orthodox number of devils—­at least seven—­to assist me, and every morning they came and received the briefs they were to hold.

Alas! of the illustrious people I have mentioned all are dead, all save one lady and myself.

When will such a company meet again?

I was no sooner in the midst of Knebworth’s delightful associations than I was anxious to return to the toilsome duties of the Law Courts, with their prosaic pleadings and windbag eloquence.  I was wanted in several consultations long before the courts met, so that it was idle to suppose I could stay the night at Knebworth.  But what would I have given to be able to do so?

Not my briefs!  They were the business of my life, without which the Knebworth pleasures would not have been possible.  I never looked with any other feeling than that of pleasure on my work, and whenever the question arose I decided without hesitation in favour of the more profitable but less delightful occupation.

But I managed a compromise now and then.  For instance, after I had done my duty in the consultations, and seen my work fairly started in court, I contrived to take the train pretty early to Knebworth, in order to attend rehearsals as well as perform in the evening.