MEMORIES OF FAMOUS TRIALS.

Shannon News, 28 September 1926, Page 4

MEMORIES OF FAMOUS TRIALS.

£ 104,000 COSTS. 4- man who once handled a cheque for £.104,000, the bill of costs in the famous Tichborne trial, xs reining from the Law Courts after a service of nearly 01 years. Mj;. W. E. StewaTt, who is now 77, joined the service of the courts at age oi' 10. He remembers the days long before the present Law Courts were built .when the site on which they now stand' Was a network of courts and alleys, law stationers’ offices, dirty cid public houses and coffee shops. “After the Tichborne trial,” said Mr tin-wart to a newspaper representative, “one of the solicitors engaged, in the rase came to our room, and flourishing a cheque for £104,000 —the hill ol costs in the trial—invited us to hold and. examine the historic document. This we did in turn with great solemnity, and we experienced a thrill as we lingered it.” There have been few famous judges, counsel, and litigants in the 1 past half century with whom v M"r.

Stewart in his oftiicial capacity has not come in contact. While the original Old Bailey was being transformed into the present building many sensational trials were held in the Law' Courts, including those of Whitaker Wright and Jabez Balfour. “They had to bring Jabez Balfour into the courts through different door each day to save him from being , lynched,” said Mr. Stewart. “There Was usually a crowd of angry people who had been ruined by him waiting ; outside for a chance to get at him.” “Before the present Law Courts vv ere opened by Queen Victoria in ISo}. the separate courts were situated in various parts of London. The King s Bench Division- cases were heard in an old building at jWestminSter; the Divorce and Admiralty Division somewhere near Charing Cross, and the Master of the Rolls’ Court was in st °ne Buildings in Chancery Lane. “In those days Chancery Lane -was jhbt a quagmire, and a favourite trick of the old hansom cabmen was to drive close into the gutter of the’nari ou’ pavement and splash pedestrians from head to foot with thick black mud and then drive away laughing." Mr. Stewart can recall the days when it was possible to have a substantial midday meal, for 6id. He na.-> also a fund of stories about London in the old days when it was unsafe to walk the streets after dark.