Lincoln's Inn, with its extensive square and garden, was so named from Henry De Lacey, Earl of Lincoln, who built a stately mansion here for his town residence, in the time of Edward I. The present buildings are irregular, and principally of brick; lint a plan was concerted about fifty years ago to rebuild the whole on a regular and noble scale, of which the stone buildings, by Sir Robert Taylor, form the only part executed. The hall and chapel were not long since repaired; the former is a noble room, in which the Lord Chancellor holds his sittings out of term time: it contains a large painting, by Hogarth, of St. Paul before Agrippa and Festus, and a statue of Lord Erskine, by Westmacott; nearly adjoining to it, a convenient court was erected in 1816 for the Vice Chancellor, whose office was first established by Parliament in 1814: it is of brick, stuccoed, and designed in some conformity with the pointed style. A new hall and library, from designs by Hardwick, have recently been erected here: the latter contains many curious manuscripts; and particularly those of the great Sir Matthew Hale, who devised them to the society, on the singular condition that they should never by printed.
Mogg's New Picture of London and Visitor's Guide to it Sights, 1844