A Guide to Lincoln’s Inn

It is almost inevitable that the name of London should bring to mind the scene of the great Metropolis which has been caught in the web of commerce; of noise and bustle, people and machines, each apparently struggling to prove its independence of the other – a place where people work by day and by night. Life at an ever increasing tempo. Yet amidst all this turmoil there are many corners in which quietness and solemnity can be found, like islands standing aloof from the frenzied tide that swirls around them. They have their own individual charm, refreshing to behold, and Lincoln’s Inn must surely be looked upon as one of these.

Situated as it is between the busy Strand and Holborn, who can tread its paths without being impressed by its air of serenity? In fact, those who pass through it, whether old or young may sense the dignity that the passage of time has established within its boundaries.

Lincoln’s Inn is an Inn of Court. To the unfamiliar, an Inn of Court is a non-corporate legal society, having the exclusive right of call to the Bar, that is, the conferring of the rank or degree of barrister. There are four Inns of Court of complete equality.

It was very many years ago that on this site, which lay just off the highway called ‘New Street ‘ – now known as Chancery Lane and surrounded mainly by open country, there stood the church and house of a body of Friars Preachers. Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, had given these preachers their church and house, and when they were translated to Blackfriars by Robert Kilwaerdly, Archbishop of Canterbury, they gave their former house by charter to Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln. This link between the Earl of Lincoln and the present Lincoln’s Inn is still a mystery.