QUAINT OLD COURT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 27 (Supplement)

QUAINT OLD COURT.

GUILDFORD'S LAST ASSIZE.

MEMORIES OF OTHER DAYS.

When the Surrey Spring Assize was held at Guildford recently, says a correspondent of a London newspaper, there was a> foreboding that the judges would never agaiu come to the quaint old court in the Borough Hall, the Standing Joint Committee having decided to make Kingston -on-Tliaines the assize town. The only point was whether a lodging would be ready at Kingston for His Majesty's representatives by the time the next assize came round. One will be ready—" a nice house in the best part of the town"—and therefore Guildford has seen its last assize. No court in the provinces has figured more often in legal anecdotage than the one which will be used no more. "At Guildford," said Mr. Justice Bucknill, " I sat on a stage and my retiring room was the gvecuroom—and, my word! you should have seen the furniture. And so forth. ' , Many cases that wero • a nine day? wonder havo been heard in the old court. The most dramatic of them, perhaps, was that of William Roupell, M.P. William Roupell was a great man in Surrey, a man of munificent disposition, and he had three fine mansions. Nobody ever dreamt that he kept a skeleton in the cupboard. But the time came when lie stood in the dock at Guildford and confessed that lie had acquired his great wealth by forging a will while his father lay dead _ upstairs. One incident that occurred in Guildford Assize Court is unique. Seventy years ago the High Sheriff of Surrey was a Kir. W. J. Evelyn. When Mr. Justice Cockburn had charged the grand jury, Mr. Evelyn started to thank the gentlemen for their "numerous attendance," but the judge interrupted him. Mr. Evelyn, with a. glare at the Bench, deliberately went on. Whereupon the judge silenced him once more and fined him £SOO for contempt of court. Two days later the other judge, Mr. Justice Blackburn, decided to near a case in camera, und the High, Sheriff, determined to get his own back, declared that ho ought to have been consulted before the doors of the court wero closed. What was more, he wrote out o. notico to this effect, and pasted it outside the court. The result of tills foolishness was that Mr. Evelyn was haled before Mr. Justice Blackburn and by him also fined £SOO, so that that particular Surrey Assize cost the redoubtable sheriff £IOOO.