have had peculiar force.

John Coleridge Patteson, his mother's second child and eldest son,
was born at No. 9, Grower Street, Bedford Square, on the 1st of
April, 1827, and baptized on the 8th. Besides the elder half-sister
already mentioned, another sister, Frances Sophia Coleridge, a year
older than, and one brother, James Henry, nearly two years younger
than Coleridge, made up the family.

Three years later, in 1830, Mr. Patteson was raised to the Bench, at
the unusually early age of forty.

It is probable that there never was a period when the Judicial Bench
could reckon a larger number of men distinguished not only for legal
ability but for the highest culture and for the substantial qualities
that command confidence and respect. The middle of the nineteenth
century was a time when England might well be proud of her Judges.

There was much in the habits of the Bench and Bar to lead to close
and friendly intimacy, especially on the circuits. When legal
etiquette forbade the use of any public conveyance, and junior
barristers shared post-chaises, while the leaders travelled in their
own carriages, all spent a good deal of time together, and it was not
unusual for ladies to go a great part of the circuit with their
husbands, especially when it lay in the direction of their own
neighbourhood. The Judges' families often accompanied them,
especially at the summer assize, and thus there grew up close
associations between their children, which made their intimacy almost
like that of relationship. Almost all, too, lived in near
neighbourhood in those parts of London that now are comparatively