Other king's counsel appear to have obtained pre-audience over the serjeants by a similar course of proceeding ; but the queen's serjeanta still retain pre-audience over all other counsel except the attorney general and solicitor-general ; and even over the attorney-general, the senior of the king's serjeants, distinguished by the appellation of " the king's ancient serjeant," retained his precedence until 1814, when Sir Samuel Shepherd, the king's ancient serjeant, being appointed solicitor-general, instead of vacating his office of serjeant, as had always before been done in such cases, obtained a warrant from the Prince-Regent giving to the attorney-general and solicitor-general per petual pre-audieuce of the whole bar. In the reigns of Mary, Elizabeth, and James I., several persons were degraded, or discharged, from the degree of serjeant-at-law in order to capacitate them for accepting the office of solicitor-general, as it is not unusual now for barristers to apply to be disbarred for the purpose of enabling them to practise as solicitors or attorneys to private suitors.
The pre-audience acquired, in comparatively modern times, by the attorney-general and solicitor-general and the other king's counsel over the serjeants in the courts of Westminster Hall, has not otherwise affected the rank or position of the latter. At the coronation of Queen Elizabeth it appears to have been finally settled that in the royal pro cession (in which those of inferior rank walk first) "the attorney and solicitor-general walk immediately before the barons of the Exchequer, and immediately after the serjeauta-at-law, who follow the knights bannerets, bachelor-knights, masters of the chancery, clerks of the court, dc." (Egerton' Papers,' 60.) The serjeants formerly occupied three inns, or collegiate buildings, for practice, and for occasional residence, situate in Chancery Lane, Fleet Street, and Holborn. The last, called Scroop's Inn, has long been abandoned, and since the burning down of Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, in the middle of the last century, that site has also been deserted by the serjeants, who have now no other building than Serjeants' Inn, Chancery Lane. Here all the common-law judges have chambers, in which they dispose in a summary way, and with closed doors, of such matters as the legislature has expressly entrusted to a single judge, and of all business which is not thought of sufficient magnitude to be brought before more than one judge, or which is supposed to be of a nature too urgent to admit of postponement.
The inn contains, besides accommodations for the judges, chambers for fourteen Serjeants, the junior serjeants while waiting for a vacancy being dispersed in the different inns of courts.
In Serjeants' Inn If all the judges and eerjetanta, as members of the Society of Serjeant,' Inn, dine together during term-time.
Formerly very splendid and expensive entertainments were given by the new serjeants upon their reception into the order. About a century
ago this custom was discontinued, and instead of festivities at their joint expense, each serjeant paid 1001. to the Treasurer of the Society of Serjeants' Inn upon his winds/lion as a member of that Society, into which the new serjeants are elected almost as a matter of course. The payment is now raised to 3501. The practice of giving gold rings to the queen and the great officers of state and others still continues, though the number has been lately reduced. These rings, with the robes and other expenses, raise the 350L to something less than 3001. The peculiar dress of the serjeants-at-htw, besides their dis tinctive coif, consists in four specie. of robes. In term time the gown of black cloth is worn on ordinary occasions. On holidays the serjeants appear in court in purple (violet coloured) gowns. When they go in state to St. Paul's, they wear scarlet gowns, as also when they attend the House of Lords, if the sovereign be present, and when they dine at Guildhall on lord mayor's tiny. At nisi prius they appear in black silk gowns, which, an being at hand, they generally wear when called upon to try causes or prisoners on the circuit, though for the latter purpose the scarlet gown, always accompanied with a sentence cap, is understood to be the appropriate costume.
The creation of serjeants was anciently attended with numerous ceremonies, a description of which May be seen in the last chapter of Ilerbert's • History of Inns of Court.' Some practices belonging to an ago of greater simplicity than the present, are still retained in those cases where the writ to the scrjeant elect issues in term-time. But by 6 Geo. IV., cap. 95, persons receiving writs, issued in vacation, commanding them to appear in the Court of Chancery and to take upon themselves the estate and dignity of a serjeant-at-Law, are, upon appearing before the lord chancellor and taking the oaths usually administered to persons called to that degree and office, declared to he serjeants-at-law sworn, without any further ceremony.
Another class of serjeanta is that of serjeants-at-arms, whose number is limited, by statute 13 Rich. II., cap. 6, to thirty. Their office is to attend the person of the king, to arrest offenders, and to attend the lord high steward when sitting in judgment upon a peer. Two of these serjeants-at-arms by the king's permission attend the two houses of parliament. In the House of Commons, the office of the serjeant-at arms (an lie is emphatically called) is to keep the doors of the house, and to execute such commands, especially touching the apprehension of any offenders against the privileges of the Commons, as the house through its Speaker may enjoin. From these serjeants-atsarrns the present regimental aerjeants are probably derived.