I could not resist the word play. I have the greatest respect for the courts of Great Britain and no slur is meant. I don’t think they are going to the dogs. If you’d like to read about my background research you can read the post Inspiration from the English Courts
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News update: My Muse Calls and A Jury of Your Pyrs has been blogged about on Law Actually!
Inspiration can come from many sources. Lately we have been watching two rather old British shows about the legal profession, Rumpole of the Bailey and Kavanagh Q.C. The occupation of Barrister dates back to the fifteen century in the Commonwealth Countries of England. I love the wigs they wear and the language they use. For instance the judge is always addressed formally as “My Lord”. As I watched them in their floppy white wigs I could not but think they looked a bit Pyr like. And my muse started nudging. Here are a couple of pictures so you can tell me what you think. I found the one for Rumpole of the Bailey on google pictures and the one of Kavanagh is from the website http://presentinenglish.com/what-we-can-learn-from-barristers and it has an excellent article there as well. If anyone wants me to acknowledge their pictures or take them down just make a comment and I will comply. The shows are very old so I am having a problem tracking down whether they have been freely released into the public domain or not.
So without further ado, here is Rumpole.
And here is Kavanagh QC
You can see the accused sitting in the dock with the metal spikes sticking up behind him.
The English courtroom is also set up very differently than the American one. The judge sits at the front and faces across the room toward the back a raised “dock” where the accused sits. This is in contrast to how the accused sits next to his counsel in an American courtroom. There are separate benches or boxes with tables to one side where the counsel will sit. And of course a jury box and a witness box. Different courtrooms have slightly different set ups. Some English cases are only argued in front of a judge or judges.
The other unique thing is that your lawyer or counsel does not directly argue your case in front of the judge. A specialist called a Barrister does that. And the best of the best Barristers are known as taking the “silk”, as they wear special silk robes and the title of Queen’s Counsel or Q.C. Hence the Q.C. in Kavanagh, Q.C.
The judges also look wonderful in a variety of robes and wigs. Here is Lord Alverstone from a 1913 Vanity Fair in full regala.
And a here is Sir James Eyre 1734-1799, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The painting is by Lemuel Francis Abbot.
Old Bailey, London’s central criminal court, dates back to 1673 and has been renovated a number of times. Here is an artistic rendering of one of it’s court rooms in 1809 rendered by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson. The nickname old Bailey was derived from the street it is located on, which was conveniently next to Newgate Street which housed Newgate Central Prison.
I don’t believe the English Courts allow photographs during it’s sessions. That is why I turned to art.
So you can see how I was inspired. So coming soon, a picture of Pyrs in an English Courtroom. Pyrs and Peers, how may plays on those words can you make? One of them is the title of my painting.
Special thanks to Wikipedia and Creative Commons for aiding the dissemination of information and images.
Factoid: English Court: Where the Queen is, English Courts: Where the Lawyers are.
If you are sad this post ended and want to go on reading here are a few fun links.
Charon QC ” He awarded himself the title QC when the Lord Chancellor suspended the award for real lawyers. Now, as no-one can instruct him in any matter, or would wish to, he is free to comment as he wishes on matters which catch his attention. He is, of course, a figment of a febrile imagination ” He gets into a number of current and interesting topics in English law.
The Magistrate’s Blog Musings and Snippets from an English Magistrate
The Anonymous Assistant A real lawyer writes a fictionalized account of the happenings in a City Law Firm.
Law Actually “He’s been described, on occasions, as a typically deranged law graduate, with a poor taste in blogging and too much spare time on his hands.” It’s actually pretty good.
OK people….still here?…..http://www.google.com/. G’nite.
I have always been an avid gardener. In the spring I love to start by filling colorful pots on my deck with fresh plants from our local garden centers. When Tila was a puppy, I was happily potting away, turned my back for a moment and found my puppy in a whirl of lavender plants. In reality, there was only one plant de-potting puppy, but in this painting I thought it was more fun to have two.
Yesterday I posted another of my paintings on Facebook for my friends to see. I was actually called “an artist”! I can embrace that. I have been reading about art and artists. Most artists have an adjective associated with their name. There are “great” painters such as Titian and Rembrandt, there are “pop” painters such as Warhol, there are impressionist, modern, folk, deconstructionist, reconstructionist, and some just bad or crazy painters. The list obviously goes on and on.
I haven’t earned any adjective yet. And I think that can be a good thing.
In my imagination, Pyrs have a secret life at night we don’t know about. They hear the conversation of owls and mice, smell the scent of moonbeams, and more. This painting came out of that part of my imagination.
A little Pyr puppy wakes in the dark of night and is frightened by the shadows and the sounds. His mother comforts him with “Don’t be afraid of the dark, the Pyr in the moon will watch over us.
And look very carefully at the moonlight that comes in the window! It lights part of the wood floor and lights the Pyrs up in its beam subtlety changing the colors of the rug as well. I worked very hard on that!