“Davenport.—‘Oh! young Scott.’
“Lee.—‘Oh! he must go. Mr. Scott, you must go home immediately, and make yourself acquainted with that cause, before our consultation this evening.’ ”
“This was very hard upon me; but I did go, and there was an attorney from Cumberland, and one from Northumberland, and I do not know how many other persons. Pretty late, in came Jack Lee, as drunk as he could be.
“ ‘I cannot consult to-night; I must go to bed,’ he exclaimed, and away he went. Then came Sir Thomas Davenport.
“ ‘We cannot have a consultation to-night, Mr. Wordsworth’ (Wordsworth, I think, was the name; it was a Cumberland name), shouted Davenport. ‘Don't you see how drunk Mr. Scott is? it is impossible to consult.’ Poor me! who had scarce had any dinner, and lost all my wine—I was so drunk that I could not consult! Well, a verdict was given against us, and it was all owing to Lawyer Fawcett's dinner. We moved for a new trial; and I must say, for the honour of the Bar, that those two gentlemen, Jack Lee and Sir Thomas Davenport, paid all the expenses between them of the first trial. It is the only instance I ever knew, but they did. We moved for a new trial (on the ground, I suppose, of the counsel not being in their senses), and it was granted. When it came on, the following year, the judge rose and said,—
“ ‘Gentlemen, did any of you dine with Lawyer Fawcett yesterday? for, if you did, I will not hear this cause till next year.’
“There was great laughter. We gained the cause that time.”
On another occasion, at Lancaster, where poor Bozzy must needs be going the Northern Circuit, “we found him,” says Mr. Scott, “lying upon the pavement inebriated. We subscribed a guinea at supper for him, and a half-crown for his clerk”—(no doubt there was a large Bar, and that [pg 795] Scott's joke did not cost him much),—“and sent him, when he waked next morning, a brief, with instructions to move for what we denominated the writ of quare adhaesit pavimento? with observations duly calculated to induce him to think that it required great learning to explain the necessity of granting it, to the judge before whom he was to move.” Boswell sent all round the town to attorneys for books, that might enable him to distinguish himself—but in vain. He moved, however, for the writ, making the best use he could of the observations in the brief. The judge was perfectly astonished, and the audience amazed. The judge said, “I never heard of such a writ—what can it be that adheres pavimento? Are any of you gentlemen at the Bar able to explain this?”
The Bar laughed. At last one of them said,—
“My lord, Mr. Boswell last night adhaesit pavimento. There was no moving him for some time. At last he was carried to bed, and he has been dreaming about himself and the pavement.”