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Serjeants Inn
City, 49, Fleet Street. (EC4) Was formerly an Inn of Court; the handsome offices were designed by one of the brothers Adam. (Reference: Timbs's Curiosities of London, p. 350) Occupied by the sergeants and judges as early as the time of Henry IV, when it was called Farringdon Inn, and so continued to be called until the year 1484. An old custom connected with the sergeants, which was observed until the time of Charles I, was a procession to St. Paul's Cathedral, where each sergeant "chose his pillar." The origin of this is believed to be, that in very early times the lawyers stood at the pillars of the cathedral waiting for clients, wearing an ink-horn at their breasts, and noting upon a piece of paper held on their knee the particulars of each case. This must have been before they were installed in the comfortable quarters of the Knights Templars. (Reference: Smith's Streets of London, pp. 259-61)
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