Note 20b — Chapter II · THE MANORS OF WESTBOURN AND PADDINGTON.

Priests, who formerly were permitted to practice in the Law Courts, were, a little before this time, for very good reasons no doubt, prevented from doing so. But they did not quietly submit to this loss of their influence in the worldly concerns of the people; and they adopted all kinds of contrivances to keep up their former power. Amongst others, equally honorable, we find they adopted the wig to hide that which would have otherwise betrayed their holy calling.—Vide Sir H. Spelman’s Conjectures on the Introduction of the Coif; Glossar, p. 335, and Blackstone, vol. I. p. 24.