BOSWELL ON THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT
SIR,—The article by the Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, on Boswell Revealed will be read with special interest by members of the Northern Circuit, one of whose most cherished possessions is a small leather-bound book, the contents of which are in Boswell's handwriting, and consist of the records which he left when he held what is still known as the High and Honourable Office of Junior. A copy of these records still travels the Circuit, but the original has been for many years in the safe custody of a London bank. It is interesting to note that there is an entry recording the episode referred to in Thackeray's Four Georges, of Boswell's slight lapse from sobriety at Lancaster Assizes and of his having on the following morning, with the connivance of a friendly attorney, applied for a writ of " queere adhiesit lammento " but if my memory serves me right this entry does not occur in the volume for which Boswell was responsible. A few years later he left the Northern Circuit, and there is a delightful letter, the original of which has unfortunately not been preserved, written from Chelmsford in which he says that he is now a homer, having joined the old Norfolk or Home Circuit. He did not, however, remain long with his new companions for, through the influence of the Lowther family, he was appointed Recorder of Carlisle, an office which could only be held by a member of the Northern Circuit. Accord- ingly he applied for reinstatement, and was duly readmitted to the Bar Mess with due, and what was, even then, traditional ceremonial.—I am,
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