114 court of appeals of maryland

the edge; and on this platform the judges sat be-
fore small tables. Men still living in Annapolis
recall seeing on the platform a row of mahogany
tables of the same design as those long used by
Senators and Delegates in the legislative cham-
bers, some of which are in existence, one in the
keeping of the present court. The two middle
windows behind the judges were screened by Ven-
etian blinds. There were, of course, tables and
chairs for counsel facing the judges, and seats for
visitors about the room. In the northwest wall
of the room, opposite the judges, there was a large
fire place, so large that it was fed with logs of
the full length of four feet; and that was the
means of heating during the first half of the cen-
tury. The fireplace is thought to have been of
the same design as those in the other large rooms
of the building, that in the old Senate Chamber
and that in the Governor's rooms. The expense
accounts of the court clerks of the time are largely
filled with items of purchases of firewood.

In June 1831, an order was passed on the
Eastern Shore for raising the floor two feet and
erecting a rail in the room used there, but whether
this means that the court had been using a room
without those features, or had moved to new quar-
ters, is not known. A remark by William Wirt,¹⁹
when ladies attended to hear an argument of his
before the Court of Appeals at Easton in 1830,
that it was the first time a lady had ever been in
the court room for her own pleasure, seems to in-
dicate that the argument was made in the ordinary
trial court room.

19. John P. Kennedy, Life of William Wirt, II, 304.