2-979-679 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Old Chambers in Middle-Temple-Lane, [London], 1857. ' It may suffice to say, without stating the events from which the Inns of Court derive their origin, that in the reign of Henry III. the students and practitioners of the municipal or common law seem for the first time to have associated in a collegiate manner, and to have acquired the privileges of a juridical university...the practice of the common law seems to have become a distinct profession in the reign of Edward I. But the lawyers had not then become established in the Temple, nor as it would seem on the lands now occupied by any of the other Inns of Court. When the new legal societies originated, the white-robed Templars were building their monastery where the Inner and the Middle Temple now stand'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.