Obiter recently happened upon the Law Society’s 1877 annual report, where he was intrigued to read that the Society’s librarian was to retire after 30 years’ service, aged 79, with a ‘pension, equal to the amount of his salary, which was £300 a year’.

How long he lived to enjoy this generous settlement is not known, alas. Even then, though, there were those who preferred to make their own arrangements. The same document records that: ‘It is with great pain and regret the Council have to state that they recently discovered that Leonard Laidman, who had for 33 years filled the position of chief clerk in the Society’s office, had been carrying on a most extensive system of embezzlement of the Society’s funds. On this discovery being made, the Council instituted a prosecution against Laidman, to which he pleaded guilty.’