Edinburgh Bookshelf

Kay's Originals Vol. 2

Search

380 B I 0 GRAPH I C AL S RETCH E S. Little Dickie was a gay sort of fellow, and spent a merry life while in Edinburgh. He was a votary of Bacchus, and used, it is said, not unfrequently to pay his devotions to that potent deity in the forenoon. He was, nevertheless, much invited out, and might occasionally be met at private parties, and at balls; from which, however, his tall wife was excluded. She was a lady of good education and polished manners, and appeared to have philosophy enough to care little for the exclusion. When her husband returned from his pleasures she had always a smile for “ Dickie, my love.” No. ccc. THE LAST SITTING OF THE OLD COURT OF SESSION. PREVIOUtoS t he Act 48th Geo. III., by which the Court was separated into Two Divisions, the whole ‘‘ fifteen lords ” sat at one bench-the Lord President of course presiding, and the Lord Justice-clerk taking his place beside him. The close of the summer session, on the 11th July 1808, was the “last sitting” under the old system. The Two Divisions assembled for the first time on the 12 th of November following.’ With the exception of Lords Woodhouselee and Robertson, the Senators composing the “ last sitting ” have already been noticed in the course of this Work. The first figure on the left is LORDH ERMAN;D the next, and continuing round the circle, BALMUTOB,A NNATYNAER,M ADALEC,U LLENP, OLKENNET, HOPE( Lord Justice-clerk), SIR ILAYCA MPBEL(LL ord President), DUNSINNAN, CRAIG, GLENLEE, MEADOWBANKse nior, WOODHOUSELEREO,B ERTSONa,n d NEWTON. ALEXANDER FRASER TYTLER (LORDW OODHOUSELEEth)e, third figure from the bottom on the right, was the eldest son of William Tytler, Sir Ilay Campbell having retired, the new President, the Right Hon. Robert Blab of Aventonn, took his seat at the head of the FIRST DIvrsIoN-the Lord Justice-clerk (the Hon. Charles Hope), presiding in the SECOND. Throughout the various constitutional changes in the College of Justice, siuce it was first instituted by James V. in 1532, the original number of Senators (fourteen and R president) continued to be adhered to till 1830 (23d July), when, by the 11th Geo. IV., and 1st Will. IV., cap. 69, sect. 20, they were reduced to twelve, exclusive of the President. An attempt on the part of the legislature, in 1785, to effect a similar reduction, was opposed, and the-feelings of the country successfully roused on the subject, by Boswell, the biographer of Johnson.
Volume 9 Page 508
  Enlarge Enlarge  
Volume 9 Page 509
  Enlarge Enlarge     Pictures Pictures