128 court of appeals of maryland

boys." Every one gladly obeyed his summons; and some eight
or ten set out for the college green, which jutted down, in a
beautiful promontory, upon an exquisite sheet of clear water.
This formed a secluded little lake in the rear of St. John's
College, shaded by the dark foliage which overhung a large
portion of its margin.

Then Kennedy follows with a report of a merry
attack upon Wirt by St. John's College students,
" a furious onslaught in showers of water dashed
upon him with their hands", an incident, he says,
which made it necessary for the Attorney General
"to be more careful afterwards in the selection of
his hour for bathing."

Here, it may be not amiss to note, by way of
completing a picture of the time, a description
transmitted by word of mouth of some of the sit-
tings of the court at the winter term, actually of
sittings on the Western Shore shortly before the
middle of the century, but of sittings under condi-
tions which existed on both shores from the begin-
ning of the century and before it. As has been
said, heat for the court room was obtained from
an open fire across the room from the bench; and
tradition adds that when the temperature dropped
so far as to render heat at that distance inade-
quate, Judge Thomas Beale Dorsey, in his day,
covered his bald head with a skull cap. Then
when the cold drove the judges away from their
seats by the windows, they drew up about the fire-
place, and heard arguments there. To the
description transmitted of fireplace sessions some
time after the middle of the century it is added
that most of the judges, as they listened, would
be chewing tobacco, an occupation for which an
open fireplace was, of course, a convenience.