of the subsequently famous “Elia” chased butterflies across the velvety sward.  “The Temple Garden,” says Mr. Walter Thornbury, “has probably been a garden from the time the white-robed Templars first came from Holborn and settled by the river-side.”  It covers an expanse of three acres, and its gay flower-beds, umbrageous trees, and emerald turf make it a veritable oasis to the inhabitants, and especially to the children, of that corner of the great metropolis.  A pillar sundial in the centre of the grass bears the date 1770, and the iron gate, surmounted by a winged horse, which guards the entrance from the terrace, was erected in 1730.  East of the sundial is a hoary old sycamore, sole survivor of three sisters, carefully protected by railings, under whose grateful shade, says local tradition, Johnson and Goldsmith were wont to chat.  In the Middle Temple Garden stands a venerable catalpa-tree, planted by Sir Matthew Hale, “one of the most eminent of lawyers and excellent of men.”  The scene in “King Henry the Sixth,"[A] where the partisans of the rival houses of Lancaster and York assume the distinctive badges of the white and red rose, is laid in the Temple Garden.  “Toward evening,” says Dr. Dibdin, “it was the fashion for the leading counsel to promenade during the summer months in the Temple Gardens.  Cocked hats and ruffles, with satin small-clothes, at that time constituted the usual evening dress.”  Anciently, the “moots” were held on the terrace of the Garden at five of the clock in the long summer evenings.

[Footnote A:  Part I., act 2, scene 4.]

The great hall of the Middle Temple is one of the finest Elizabethan structures in the metropolis.  It was commenced in 1562, when the old hall was converted into chambers, consumed a decade in building, and is of grand proportions.  It is a hundred feet long, and the massive beauty of the glossy oaken roof, almost black with age, is alone worth an Atlantic voyage to see.  The walls and windows are decorated with the arms of various members of the Inn, and the paintings are numerous and of great historical interest.  Over the dais is a portrait of Charles I. on horse-back, by Vandyke, one of the three original paintings of the unhappy monarch by that great master.  Another of the trio is at Windsor, while the third adorns Warwick Castle.  There are also copies of portraits of Charles II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, and George II., and marble busts, by Behnes, of “Doubting” Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, the great Admiralty judge.  The screen and the music-gallery are marvels of the wood-carver’s art.  Tradition says the screen was made of oak from the timbers of the wrecked Invincible Armada; but this cannot be, inasmuch as it was set up a dozen years before the doomed squadron sailed out of Lisbon harbor.