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166 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
He, Philip, was called to the bar in due course, and at his callsupper
we assembled a dozen of his elderly and youthful friends.
The chambers in Parchment Buildings were given up to him for
this day. Mr. Van John, I think, was away attending a steeplechase
; but Mr. Cassidy was with us, and several of Philip's acquaintances
of school, college, and the world. There was Philip's
father, and Philip's Uncle Twysden, and I, Phil's revered and
respectable school senior, and others of our ancient seminary. There
was Burroughs, the second wrangler of his year, great in metaphysics,
greater with the knife and fork. There was Stackpole, Eblana's
favourite child—the glutton of all learning, the master of many
languages, who stuttered and blushed when he spoke his own.
There was Pinkerton, who, albeit an ignoramus at the university,
was already winning prodigious triumphs at the Parliamentary bar,
and investing in Consols to the admiration of all his contemporaries.
There was Rosebury the beautiful, the Mayfair pet and delight of
Almack's, the cards on whose mantelpiece made all men open the
eyes of wonder, and some of us dart the scowl of envy. There was
my Lord Egham, Lord Ascot's noble son. There was Tom Dale,
who, having carried on his university career too splendidly, had
come to grief in the midst of it, and was now meekly earning his
bread in the reporters' gallery, alongside of Cassidy. There was
Macbride, who, having thrown up his fellowship and married his
cousin, was now doing a brave battle with poverty, and making
literature feed him until law should reward him more splendidly.
There was Haythorn, the country gentleman, who ever remembered
his old college chums, and kept the memory of that friendship up
by constant reminders of pheasants and game in the season. There
were Raby and Maynard from the Guards' Club (Maynard sleeps
now under Crimean snows), who preferred arms to the toga ; but
carried into their military life the love of their old books, the
affection of their old friends. Most of these must be mute personages
in our little drama. Could any chronicler remember the talk
of all of them ?
Several of the guests present were members of the Inn of Court
(the Upper Temple), which had conferred on Philip the degree of
Barrister-at-Law. He had dined in his wig and gown (Blackmore's
wig and gown) in the inn-hall that day, in company with other
members of his inn; and, dinner over, we adjourned to Phil's
chambers in Parchment Buildings, where a dessert was served, to
which Mr. Firmin's friends were convoked.
The wines came from Dr. Firmin's cellar. His servants were
in attendance to wait upon the company. Father and son both
loved splendid hospitalities, and, so far as creature comforts went,