At the age of seven he was put to school at the Charter House; five years later he became a Foundation scholar, his patron being Sir Robert Walpole; three years later, at the age of fifteen, he stood at the head of the school. He distinguished himself in the delivery of an oration in commemoration of Mr. Thomas Sutton, the founder of the school, and as the winner of the Benson prize medal for verses upon Milton. In 1738, he entered Pembroke College, Oxford, and during his seven years in the University devoted himself to the classics, but particularly to the science of architecture, upon which he composed a treatise, which though never published, was much read and admired.

On November 20, 1741, in his nineteenth year, he began his legal studies in the Middle Temple. During four of the five years of his legal novitiate he continued his studies at Oxford, becoming a Fellow of the College of All Souls in November, 1743, and taking his degree of B.C.L. in 1745. It was during this time that he wrote his now well-known verses entitled "The Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse." On the 28th of November, 1746, in his twenty-fourth year, he was called to the Bar. It is interesting to observe the pertinacity of his double course of study, for his close connection with the University during the time that he was in the Temple shaped and determined his subsequent career.

As personal letters contain an unconscious revelation of character I cannot refrain from illustrating his characteristics as a student of law by introducing in this connection. a letter in extenso, written by him from Arundel Street, under the date of January 28, 1745.

Dear Sir.

You have been so kind as to tell me, yt a Line now & then from me would not be unacceptable to you. 'Tis this that has drawn upon you ye present trouble for wch you have Nobody but yourself to blame.

I have been in Town about ten Days, & am tolerably well settled in my new Habitation (wch. is at Mr. Stokes's A Limner

in Arundel Street) The People of ye house seem honest, civil, & industrious; and my Lodgings are in themselves chearful, refined, &, as every Body tells me, extremely reasonable. Nor do I want opportunities of gallantry (if I have Inclination to improve them) there lodging in ye same House a young Lady of extraordinary Accomplishments & a very ample Fortune; but alas! She has, together with ye Riches, ye Complexion of a Jew. So that she is not like to grow a very formidable Rival to-Cke upon Littleton.

Coke I have not yet ventured to attack, but have (according to Ch. J. Reeves's Plan) begun with Littleton only. Two together wd. be too much for a Hercules, but I am in great Hopes of managing them one after ye other. I have stormed one Book of Littleton, & opened my Trenches before ye 2d; & I can with pleasure say I have met with no Difficulty of Consequence; There is one thing indeed & but one, I do not understand in ye first Book, wch. is a mere matter of speculation: & is in short this, The Donees in Frank Marriage shall do no service (but that of fealty) to ye Donor or his Heirs till ye 4th Degree be past, Of wch 4 Degrees ye Donce shall be said to be ye first. S. 20. To prove wch. last Assertion Littleton produces a Writ of Right of Ward, (as you may see pag. 23 C.) Now with me ye Question is, how the Writ wch. he produces proves ye Point he wd have it do, viz. that ye Donee in Frank Marriage is ye first of four Degrees. You will observe that this is a Point of mere Curiosity, Frank Marriage being now out of use. But I don't love to march into an unknown Country without securing every Post behind me: & it is a greater slur upon a General to leave a Slight Place untaken, than one more hard of Access. Besides, in my apprehension, (& I shd be glad to know your opinion of ye matter) ye Learning out of use is as necessary to a Beginner as that of every Day's Practice. There seem in ye modern Law to be so many References to ye ancient Tenures & Services, that a Man who wd. understand ye reasons, ye Grounds, & Original of what is Law at this day must look back to what it was formerly; or Or'wise his learning will be both confused and superficial. I have sometimes thought that ye Common Law, as it stood in Littleton's Days, resembled a regular Edifice: where ye Apartments were properly disposed, leading one into another without confusion, where every part was subservient to ye whole, all uniting in one beautiful Room had its distinct Office allotted to it. But as it is now, swoln, shrunk, curtailed, enlarged, altered & mangled by various & contradictory Statutes &c.; it resembles ye same edifice; with many of its most useful Parts

pulled down, with preposterous Additions in other Places, of different Materials & coarse workmanship: according to ye whim, or prejudice, or Private Convenience of ye Builders. By wch. means the Communication of ye Parts is destroyed, and their harmony quite annihilated; & now it remains a huge, irregular Pile, with many noble Apartments, tho' awkwardly put together, and some of them of no visible use at present. But if one desires to know why they were built, to what end or use, how they communicated with ye rest & ye like; he must necessarily carry in his Head ye Model of ye old House, wch. will be ye only Clew to guide him thro' this new Labyrinth.

I have trespassed so far on ye Patience, that I am almost afraid to venture any farther. But I happened t'other day upon a case in a Civil Law Book, wch. I should be glad to know how you imagine Chancery wd. decide. A Man dies & leaves his Wife with Child; and by his Will ordains that, if his Wife brought forth a son; ye son shd. have 2 3ds and ye Mother one 3d of ye Estate. If a Daughter, then ye Wife to have 2, & ye Daughter 1 3d. The Wife brought twins, a Boy & a Girl. ‘Qu. How shall ye estate be divided. NB We must suppose a jointure, or something, in Bar of Dower.

We are quite in ye dark as to intelligence here in Town; You must observe what strange, perplexed, incoherent Accs. ye Gazette affords us. I fear our Loss in Scotland was greater than they care to own. But at ye same time, even Victory must lessen ye number of ye Rebels, while we are continually recruiting. There is a Talk of assessing all personal estates & raising thereby 3 millions. If so, ye assessment must run high.

I was sensibly concerned at hearing of Mr. Richmond's Illness; but hope, by not hearing lately anything further, that all is well again. My hearty Goodwishes attend him, & my cousin, who I shd think might take a trip to Town this Spring. My Aunt of Worting will be at Lincolns Inn-Fields about Easter; & probably wd. be glad of a companion to partake of some of ye gay Diversions.

Excuse, Sir, this tedious Length, wch I promise never to be guilty of again, & when you have an idle hour, be so good as to think of, Sir

Your most obliged humble Servant,

Arundel Street

Jan. 28, 1745

Will. Blackstone.

After his admission to the Bar he was appointed bursar of his college. Finding the accounts in much confusion he reduced them to lucid order and wrote a dissertation upon bookkeeping. He also arranged the muniments of the college estates, displayed his knowledge of architecture by useful and practical suggestions in the rebuilding of the Codrington Library. and his knowledge of books in the classification of its contents. For these services his college appointed him, in 1749, steward of their manors. The next year he became a Doctor of the Civil Law and published an "Essay on Collateral Consanguinity." He then relapsed into poetry and wrote "Verses on the Death of His Royal Highness, Frederick, late Prince of Wales." This was followed by a letter to the Vice Chancellor of Oxford relative to the management of the Clarendon Press. He also amused himself by annotating Shakespeare, and communicated his notes to Malone, who subsequently to the death of Blackstone published them in his well-known edition of the plays.

In the meantime his progress at the Bar was slow and unremunerative. Having been chosen Recorder of Wallingford, in the County of Berks, he determined to retire to his fellowship and practise only as a provincial counsellor. During the next four years he was engaged in those particular researches and general studies which gradually led him to the conclusion that the lack of instruction in the laws and Constitution of England was a lamentable defect in the scheme of university education. In the year 1753, when he was but thirty years of age "his original plan," as he himself tells us in the Preface to his Commentaries, "took its rise and notwithstanding the novelty of such an attempt and the prejudices usually conceived against any innovation in the established mode of education, he had the satisfaction to find that his endeavors were encouraged and patronized by those both in the University and out of it, whose good opinion and esteem he was principally desirous to obtain."