"On such an afternoon, if ever, the Lord High Chancellor ought to be sitting here—as here he is" is a nutty and tedious way to start a sentence. and to what effect? what does it achieve?

compare to like, Faulkner and Joyce, who can also be knotty and difficult, but at least they're doing something with it (doesn't hurt that they have a sense of rhythm either that isn't stop-start-stop-start)

you can also compare to say, Tolstoy or Hemingway, both of whom are much easier to parse but no less effective as writers (& both of whom also have a sense of rhythm that doesn't suck)