On the other hand, he is nearly always very carefully
dressed; his black frock-coat--a little ancient in make, and always of
the smooth black, which has given way with younger men to the
diagonals--is a well-known feature of every great debate, and adds grace
to his appearance and delivery. When summer comes, however, he bursts
into an almost dazzling glory of white waistcoats, grey cashmere coats,
and hats of creamy-yellow whiteness, ethereal and almost aggressively
summery. The younger men are not slow to follow so excellent an
example--though generally there is the tendency to the dark grey, which
is a compromise between the black of winter and the fiery white tweed
which the man in the street is wont to wear. Sir Charles Russell--who,
returning from Paris on the same day as Mr. Sexton, received a very warm
welcome--is also a child of his age in his clothes. Time was when a
great legal luminary--especially if he were on the bench--was supposed
to be violating every canon of good taste if he did not wear garments
which might be described as a cross between the garb of a bishop, an
undertaker, and a hangman. The judge on the bench, in fact, was always
supposed to be putting on the black cap figuratively, and, therefore,
was obliged to bear with him the outward sign of his damnable trade.
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