Gray's Inn was especially conspicuous for those exercises, which Stow calls "Boltes," "Mootes," or "putting of cases," for the "Boltes" were conversational arguments addressed to or put to a student by a Bencher and two barristers in private.
Subsequently, when the student had become a sufficiently expert "Bolter," he was admitted to the "Mootes," where questions upon legal matters were debated by the students in the presence of the Benchers of the Society.
The object of these exercises was to promote the faculty of ready speaking, and, in order to secure this end, the disputants were kept in ignorance of the topic to be argued until called upon to discuss it.
The case, drawn up by the Reader, was laid upon the salt-cellar before meals; none were permitted to look into it under pain of expulsion from the Society.
These discussions were strictly legal, and the proceedings were conducted as nearly as possible in like manner to those of the Courts themselves. "About the end of the 17th century," says Lord Campbell, "Mootes fell into disuse, and they have now entirely ceased."
It is in such institutions as these Inns of Court and other similar communities, that the old feudal feeling respecting ancient servitors has been retained in much of its pristine integrity. Many of the old servants and inferior officers of Grays Inn may be said to belong to the place by right of descent. They were born within its precincts, they have been trained beneath the shadows of its old walls. In their youth they began their course of serving under the guidance of father, or grandfather, and now, in their old age, have in their turns some post of trust and responsibility confided to them.
There is something especially delightful and heart-stirring in the service of gray-headed men who have passed their lives in the same place, serving the same masters.
Shakespeare felt this, when, in describing old Adam in As You Like It, he makes the old man say:
Master, go on, and I will follow thee,
To the last gasp, with love and loyalty.