Pegasus Weather-Vane, Inner Temple. This "[j]olly plump Pegasus" (Bradley and Pevsner 353) has been the emblem of the Inner Temple since the sixteenth century, probably from its association with Lord Robert Dudley, leader of the "Order of the Pegasus" (see "Pegasus Emblem").
2 Crown Office Row, designed by Sydney Smirke, and built 1863-4, as it was in Victorian times.
Destroyed during World War II, Crown Office Row was rebuilt to a design by Sir Edward Maufe in 1953-55 (see "Conservation Area," 5; illustration taken from Loftie 82). Charles Lamb was born at 2 Crown Office Row and lived there for his first twenty years. Of the Victorians, Thackeray returned to the Inns of Court after giving up his study of the law for a literary career. Clearly he still enjoyed the ambience there, if not the dry law books and uncongenial (to him) practice of the law. From 1848-50, he lived at the old 10 Crown Court. He was writing and illustrating Pendennis then: it was serialised from November 1848 to December 1850. Thus the young Pendennis is reported to have told a certain Miss Bolton that "although some of the courts were gloomy, parts of the Temple were very cheerful and agreeable, especially the chambers looking on the river and around the gardens [like Crown Office Row], and that the gardens were a very pleasant walk on Sunday evenings" (II: 105).
Related Material
Photograph by George P. Landow, commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee. [You may use these images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
References
Bradley, Simon, and Nikolaus Pevsner. London 1: The City of London, Vol. 1. London: Penguin, 1998.
"Conservation Area Character Summary: Temples." City of London, 2007. Web. 18 December 2011.
Loftie, W. J. The Inns of Court and Chancery. London: Seeley & Co., 1895. Internet Archive. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.
"Pegasus Emblem." The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Web. 18 Dec. 2011.
Thackeray, William Makepeace. The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and his Greatest Enemy. Vol. II. New York: Harper, 1850. Web. 18 December 2011.
Last modified 31 December 2011