It is on that table that all the business is done; all the energies of the place are controlled and directed from thence.  At the first glance it appears to support a more chaotic mass of papers.  They completely conceal it, except just at the edge.  Bundles of letters tied with thin red tape, letters loose, letters unopened; parchment deeds with the seals and signature just visible; deeds with the top and the words, ’This indenture,’ alone glowing out from the confusion; deeds neatly folded; broad manuscript briefs; papers fastened with brass fasteners; papers hastily pinned together; old newspapers marked and underlined in red ink; a large sectional map, half unrolled and hanging over the edge; a small deed-box, the lid open, and full of blue paper in oblong strips; a tall porcupine-quill pen sticking up like a spire; pocket-books; books open; books with half a dozen papers in them for markers; altogether an utter chaos.  But the confusion is only apparent; the master mind knows the exact position of every document, and can lay his hand on it the moment it is wanted.

The business is such that even the master mind can barely keep pace with it.  This great house can hardly contain it; all the clerks we saw rushing about cannot get through the work, and much of the mechanical copying or engrossing goes to London to be done.  The entire round of country life comes here.  The rolling hills where the shepherd watches his flock, the broad plains where the ploughman guides the share, the pleasant meadows where the roan cattle chew the cud, the extensive parks, the shady woods, sweet streams, and hedges overgrown with honeysuckle, all have their written counterpart in those japanned deed-boxes.  Solid as is the land over which Hodge walks stolid and slow, these mere written words on parchment are the masters of it all.  The squire comes here about intricate concerns of family settlements which in their sphere are as hard to arrange as the diplomatic transactions of Governments.  He comes about his tenants and his rent; he comes to get new tenants.

The tenants resort to the solicitor for farms, for improvements, reductions, leases, to negotiate advances, to insure for the various affairs of life.  The clergyman comes on questions that arise out of his benefice, the churchyard, ecclesiastical privileges, the schools, and about his own private property.  The labourer comes about his cottage and garden—­an estate as important to him as his three thousand acres to the squire—­or as a witness.  The tradesman, the builder, the banker come for financial as well as legal objects.  As the town develops, and plots are needed for houses and streets, the resort to the solicitor increases tenfold.  Companies are formed and require his advice.  Local government needs his assistance.  He may sit in an official position in the County Court, or at the bench of the Petty Sessions.  Law suits—­locally great—­ are carried through in the upper Courts of the metropolis;