XIX. Sir Roger at the Assizes
Motto. "A jovial companion on the way is as good as a carriage."—Publius Syrus, Maxims.
[144]: 9. Assizes. The periodical sessions held by at least one of the superior judges in every county in England. For a brief but clear description of the English judicial system, see Woodrow Wilson's The State, sections 731-745.
144: 16. Just within the Game Act. This act, passed in the reign of James I, provided that no person who had not an income of forty pounds a year, or two hundred pounds' worth of goods and chattels, should be allowed to shoot game. The law continued in force until 1827.
144: 23. Petty jury. The twelve men selected to determine cases, civil or criminal, in court, according to the evidence presented to them; called petty (or petit) jury to distinguish them from the grand jury, whose principal function is to decide whether the evidence against a suspected person is sufficient to warrant holding him for trial by a petty jury.
144: 27. Quarter sessions. A criminal court held by the justices of the peace once a quarter in an English county.
[145]: 20. Much might be said on both sides. Sir Roger's decision has passed into a proverb.
[146]: 12. A look of much business and great intrepidity. One of Addison's best bits of description.
[147]: 19. The Saracen's Head. In early days, before city streets were numbered, not only inns but shops usually were designated by some sign painted or carved at the door. In the case of inns this practice still survives, and most English inns of the county towns bear the name of some object that once served as a sign, as the Angel (Lincoln), the Fountain (Canterbury), the Bull (Cambridge), the Three Swans (Salisbury). Ever since the time of the Crusades the head of a Saracen, or Turk, had been a favourite sign. Readers of Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson will recall the Turk's Head Tavern in Gerrard Street, London, where the most famous of clubs used to meet.