The Reminiscences Of Sir Henry Hawkins (Baron Brampton) | Page 7

from the regions below.
This was not quite true. On another occasion some bold adventurer
ascended with asthmatical energy to the fourth floor, and I thought as I
heard him wheeze he would never have breath enough to get down
again, and wondered if the good-natured attorneys kept these wheezy
old gentlemen out of charity. But it was rare indeed that the climber,
unless it was the rent collector, reached that floor.
The fifth landing was too remote for the postman, for I never got a
letter--at least so it seemed; and no squirrel watching from the topmost
bough of the tallest pine could be more lonely than I.
At last I thought a step had passed even the fourth landing, and was
approaching mine; but I would not think too fast, and damped my
hopes a little on purpose lest they should burn too brightly and too fast.
I was not mistaken: there was a footstep on my landing, and I listened
for the one heavy knock. It seemed to me I waited about an hour and a
half, judging by the palpitations of my heart, and wished the man had
knocked as vigorously. But I was rewarded: the knocker fell, and as my
boy was away with the toothache, I opened the door myself. He was the
same wheezy man I had heard below some time before; and I really

seem to have liked asthmatical people ever since--except when I
became a judge and they disturbed me in court.
"Papers!"
That is enough to say to any one who understands the situation. You
may be sure I gave them my best attention, that they were finished
promptly, and, as I hoped, in the best style. If I had required any
additional incentive to keep me to my daily task of watching, this
would have been sufficient; but I wanted none. I knew that my whole
future depended upon it, and there I was from ten in the morning till ten
at night.
My first fee was small, but it was the biggest fee I ever had. It was 10s.
6d. I was only a special pleader, and with some papers our fees were
even less; we only had to draw pleadings, not to open them in
court--that comes after you are called to the Bar. Drawing them means
really drawing the points of the case for counsel, and opening them
means a gabbling epitome of them to the jury, which no jury in this
world ever yet understood or ever will.
This little matter was the forerunner of others, and by little and little I
steadily went on, earning a few shillings now and a few shillings then,
but, best of all, becoming known little by little here and there.
I was aware that some knowledge of the world would be necessary for
me when I once got into it by way of business as an advocate, so I came
to the conclusion that it would be well to commence that branch of
study as soon as I closed the other for the day--or rather for the night.
I had not far to go to school, only to the Haymarket and its delightful
purlieus; and there were the best teachers to be found in the world, and
the most recondite studies. For all these I kept, as the great politicians
say, an open mind, and learned a great deal which stood me in good
stead in after-life.
It is not necessary, I suppose, in writing these reminiscences, to
describe all I saw--at least I hope not. Manners have so changed since

that time that people who have no imagination would not believe me,
and those who have would imagine I was exaggerating. So I must skip
this portion of my youthful studies, merely saying that I saw nearly, if
not quite, all the life which was to be seen in London; and I am sure I
am not exaggerating when I say that that would nearly fill an octavo
volume of itself. There is so much to be seen in London, as a dear old
lady I used to drink tea with once told me.
But she did not know more than I, for she had never seen the
night-houses, gambling hells, and other places of amusement that at
that time were open all night long, nor had she seen the ghastly faces of
the morning. I attribute my escaping the consequences of all these
allurements to the beautiful influence which my mother in early life
exercised over me, as I attribute my knowledge of them to the removal
of the restraint with which my earlier years had been curbed.
My mother died before I came to London, but undoubtedly her
influence was with me, although I broke loose, as