kindness and instruction I received from him.

Platt was an advocate of a different stamp. He also was kind, and in
every way worthy of grateful remembrance. He loved to amuse especially
the junior Bar, and more particularly in court. He was a good natural
punster, and endowed with a lively wit. The circuit was never dull
when Platt was present; but there was one trait in his character as an
advocate that judges always profess to disapprove of--he loved
popular applause, and his singularly bold and curious mode of
cross-examination sometimes brought him both rebuke and hearty
laughter from the most austere of judges.

He dealt with a witness as though the witness was putty, moulding him
into any grotesque form that suited his humour. No evidence could
preserve its original shape after Platt had done with it. He had a
coaxing manner, so much so that a witness would often be led to say
what he never intended, and what afterwards he could not believe he
had uttered.

Thesiger, who was his constant opponent, was sometimes irritated with
Platt's manner, and on the occasion I am about to mention fairly lost
his temper.

It was in an action for nuisance before Tindal, Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas, at Croydon Assizes.

Thesiger was for the plaintiff, who complained of a nuisance caused by
the bad smells that emanated from a certain tank on the defendant's
premises, and called a very respectable but ignorant labouring man to
prove his case.