from 1806 to 1851 123

judges were proprietors of considerable farm
lands, Judge Archer's in Harford County, and
Judge Dorsey's in the region of the Patapsco
River above Ellicott City, where he lived. Judge
Dorsey to the end of his connection with the
Court of Appeals rode to and from Annapolis on
horseback.

In estimating the work of the court, of course,
that of the bar must be considered; and here the
old court was especially strong—strong in its bar.
It had a bar not only of conspicuously able men,
but, it must be remembered, of men who made a
life work of the study and presentation of ques-
tions for decision, and were ranked in the world
according to their skill and effectiveness in it.
They not only prepared their cases; the leading
ones among them prepared and cultivated them-
selves for the work. William Pinkney, we arc
told, during all his life studied the law and drilled
himself in the English language and literature,
with the strictest method and the most resolute
perseverance.³⁸ And even during his diplomatic
service in England, he continued his studies. His
success at the bar, says one of his biographers,³⁹
"was as much the effect of extraordinary dili-
gence and labor as of his genius and rare endow-
ments of mind. * * * He was never satisfied with
investigating his causes, and took infinite pains in
exploring their facts and circumstances, and all
the technical learning connected with them."
"He did not rely", says Justice Story,⁴⁰ "exclu-

38. Henry Wheaton, Life of William Pinkney, 186.

39. Ibid, 142.

40. Miscellaneous Writings, 795.