from 1851 to 1867 165

A pronounced change in the appearance of the
court room was made in 1864 and 1865. Three
successive legislative appropriations—acts of
1864 chapter 377, 1865 chapter 168, and 1865
chapter 182—placed nearly $8000 at the disposal
of the judges and the clerk of the court for repair-
ing and refurnishing their rooms; and the con-
tinuous bench and the fittings as they appeared
thenceforth down to 1903 were then installed.³
Contemporary reference to the change is meagre,
and in the recollections of surviving men an un-
expected difference as to the date of it has been
encountered. The present court crier is firm in his
belief that he worked on the steps of the old plat-
form, preceding the installation of the continuous
bench, as recently as 1872; but one octogenarian
member of the bar reports that the connected
bench was in the room when he first saw it in
1869,'and another reports that when he left An-
napolis for the Confederate Army early in the
Civil War the platform and tables were in the
room, and when he returned a few years after the
war the connected bench was there. And as no
other money sufficient for the purpose was ever ap-
propriated to the court, the conclusion here
adopted as to the time of the change seems unes-
capable. In addition to the bench, which was
built along the southeast wall, across the two cen-
tral windows of the room, there was a double
wooden rail built to enclose the counsel table like
a parenthesis, and the top of the rail supplemented
the table as a place to rest books; and on the sides
of the room were built high wooden cupboards

3. See illustration opposite page 170.