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Show HuHi? imil bsLl London's Glass. Custom Relic of Crusaders. Eenchers, Barristers and Students Summoned by Ancient Method I Recalls Days When Clocks j and Watches Were Ui I known. j London. Nowhere do old customs cling more firmly than in the ancient seat of legal learning, the Middle 'Temple, London, which still jealously guards (he traditions it has inherited. To the present-day benchers, bar-' bar-' voters and students are summoned to j dinner each evening during term tima by the blowing of a horn a custom which has survived on this spot since 1 the romantic days of the crusaders. Every evening at 5:30 during the three weeks of the legal terms, a warder in gold-braided uniform, procures the ox hern from the strong room of the ' Middle Temple, and proceeding to the famous fountain in Fountain court, ' summons the members to dinner by i blowing a blast on this primitive Instrument. In-strument. He then visits each court in turn, according to ancient custom, and many a bencher throws up his window to listen to the sound of the winding horn, which has been heard continuously continu-ously in these precincts since the tirfK-. when the Knights Templar established themselves there in 11SL " Its use recalls the days when clocks and watches were unknown, and tha voice of the watchman, calling out the time, was a familiar sound through the night watches. Sun dials were then the only guides the people possessed pos-sessed as to the flight of time, and of these more than one still survives. Summoning Lawyers to Dinner. with Its quaint motto, on the walls of the Temple buildings. It is to the sworn enemies of the Knights Templar, Tem-plar, the fyracens, oddly enough, that as we do, indeed, the greater part of our mathematical knowledge as well. When the Templars founded their new monastery between Whitefriars and Essex house in the Strand, the latter was, as its name implies, merely a beach beside the silver Thames, and all around was open couulry, the site of the present law courts being a largo field which was used as a tilting ground by the knights. In later days, when the men of law had taken over the settlement of the Knights Templar, Tem-plar, the students, who were resident in the Temple, were dependent on its kitchen for their daily meals. After a hurried breakfast in the buttery at eight o'clock they would take their law books, and wander off along Urn Strand, where, in 'summer time, (hoy lay under the trees and bushes studying study-ing law. Some would row across tho river to the Surrey fields, and wander through the open country. Half an hour before ditner the pan-yer pan-yer man, who drew the daily supply of bread every morning frc:n Westminster, West-minster, ustd to take a .- r;;e ox horn and walk along the river'? side, blowing blow-ing the horn as a signal to the student's stu-dent's to return to the Kuiplo for dinner. The panyer man, who v.a.3 formerly charged with the duty of winding tho horn, had a!ro to provide ti e in: 11 with mustard, pepper and vim:?: :, his annual an-nual wages in 163S ainour'i1!-; to $2i. Other useful members f "re siaff were the ci.ir.f wash pot am' ilie under wash pot, I he chief turn broach, tho steward's servant and ur.d riurn spit; the last named receiving J:; a year. The horn now in use In the Middle Temple posseses no an!!tj.:;:,"ian interest in-terest in itself, dating back c:ly somo ten years. It was brought over from the Argentine by one of the members shortly before it was found n : e: sary to discontinue the use of the old one. "Ye horn of ye Middle T i..:W had become so decrepit, throu; !: a-;c and constant use, that the weird ai d ,'ancy sounds it emitted were cal -n : t 'd to bring it into ridicuU'. It had be-'Oino a mass of silver bands, which had been added from time to time to keep it together, and close up the cracks in its sides. But in spite of these bands the air still escaped so freely that the warder who blew it had to place a wet handkerchief over the horn every time he used It. So the ancient horn, which had sounded the welcome summons to dinner din-ner in term for generations, was placed on the retired list, and now it Dnly sees the light on grand nights ia hall, when it Is placed on the table with the rest of the Middle Temple's nroud display of silver plate. |