Charles Isaac Elton, QC, MP — 'Court Roll'

Leslie Ward ('Spy') renders the Somerset barrister and antiquary Charles Isaac Elton as a figure of magnificent corpulence: top-hatted, side-whiskered, dressed in a brown frock-coat and buff trousers, he leans slightly forward, one hand pressed to his hip, belly straining the waistcoat, red cravat splayed across his chest. The caption 'Court Roll' is a double pun — Elton practised at the bar (he took silk as QC) and was a scholarly authority on manorial court rolls, having published Origins of English History (1882). Ward exaggerates the girth without venom; the caricature is socially affectionate, typical of how Vanity Fair treated Establishment lawyers — formidable but comfortable, the law as a well-fed profession.