Auld acquaintance Author:Richard Harris Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: V. IN WHICH ROGER BECOMES A MEMBER OF THE MOST HONOURABLE AND WORSHIPFUL SOCIETY OF HARDUPPIANS, AS WELL AS OF THE MOST HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE ... more » I Pass over the remainder of my schooldays and university career, for nothing of any novelty occurred ; and as the Bar had been suggested as the arena in which I might be most likely to shine, I was entered of the Middle Temple. There I spent some of my happiest years and made some of my most brilliant acquaintances. My love for the old hall remains, and I can never forget its festivities and good fellowship ; while many of its characters will remain as precious memories that neither time nor circumstances will obliterate. After my "call," which was a solemn function, where I figured in bran new wig and gown with spotless bands and a heart beating high with hopes of a convivial evening, I took " chambers," as they were called, dark, drear, and doleful, at the top of Middle Temple Lane, a place I should have thought could only be occupied by the devil—or some one whom he had misled. Then I indulged in appropriate gloomy thoughts as to how many hopeless creatures had made away with themselves or with somebody else in that ghastly den. Imagination so worked upon my nervous system, that one evening I escaped from the miserable rat hole, and rushed down the three pairs ofstairs in about the same number of bounds. I was in a kind of nightmare and wandered listlessly along Fetter Lane; even this unenchanting locality was a refreshing change from my chamber of horrors, and all at once the thought occurred to me that I would go in and hear a debate at the " Harduppians " ; the good old Harduppians I had so often heard of. There are many persons who have not heard of this distinguished society ; although from its numerous membe...« less