from 1806 TO 1851 113

that last volume, the reporters caught up with
the current cases, reporting some of that same year,
1829. Harris also collaborated with William
Kilty, Jr., and John N. Watkins in publishing a
six volume compilation of laws passed from 1799
to 1818.

Some quotations which Harris wrote out on
extra pages of the book in which he noted down
arguments in court render him suspect of humor.
On the title page of his notes of daily sessions at
the June term, 1807, he wrote:

A hiding place from the winds and a covert from the tempest.
As rivers in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land. 32 Ch. 5.

And on the title page of notes of the next term:

The ships about whose sides loud tempests war,
With gentle winds were wafted from the shore.
Turtles and doves of different hues unite
And glossy jet is pair'd with shining white.

At the outset the court on the Western Shore
instructed the clerk to have the room usually oc-
cupied by the court in the State House furnished
more comfortably, but just what the more com-
fortable furnishing amounted to is not known. It
is clear that the court room presented a very dif-
ferent appearance from that of the room as it was
known toward the end of the nineteenth century.
There was no long unbroken desk for the judges,
such was we have now come to call the "bench."
Against the front or southeast wall of the room,
where the judges always sat as long as the room
was used, there was a platform or dais about two
feet high above the floor, projecting into the room
in £ flat, or three-centered, arch, with steps around