disputes my conclusion, that the assumers were, so far as can be
ascertained, those who were attached to the royal household or service,
it will be perceived, by what I have already stated, that I still adhere
to that conclusion. I do not, therefore, admit that the statute of 2
Henry IV. shows me to be incorrect in any one of those four particulars.
ARMIGER next proceeds to allude to Manlius Torquatus, who won and wore
the golden torc of a vanquished Gaul: but this story only goes to prove
that the collar of the Roman _torquati_ originated in a totally
different way from the Lancastrian collar of livery. ARMIGER goes on to
enumerate the several derivations of the Collar of Esses--from the
initial letter of _Soverayne_, from _St. Simplicius_, from _St. Crispin_
and _St. Crispinian_, the martyrs of Soissons, from the _Countess of
Salisbury_, from the word _Souvenez_, and lastly, from the office of
_Seneschalus_, or Steward of England, held by John of Ghent,--which is,
as he says, "Mr. Nichols's notion," but the whole of which he
stigmatises alike "as mere monkish or heraldic gossip;" and, finally, he
proceeds to unfold his own recondite discovery, "viz. that it comes from
the S-shaped lever upon the bit {250} of the bridle of the war
steed,"--a conjecture which will assuredly have fewer adherents than any
one of its predecessors. But now comes forth the disclosure of what
school of heraldry this ARMIGER is the champion. He is one who can tell
us of "many more rights and privileges than are dreamt of in the
philosophy either of the court of St. James's or the college of St.
Bennet's Hill!" In short, he is the mouthpiece of "the Baronets'
Committee for Privileges." And this is the law which he lays down:--

"The persons now privileged to wear the ancient golden collar of
SS. are the _equites aurati_, or knights (chevaliers) in the
British monarchy, a body which includes all the hereditary order
of baronets in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with such of