Notes and Queries, Number 43, August 24, 1850 | Page 3

That the assumers were, "so far as can be ascertained, knights holding a certain position,--such as being attached to the royal household or service."
It is important to point out these four inaccuracies of MR. NICHOLS' reply to B., because it is desirable that his forthcoming volume should not be a heterogeneous collection of notices relating to the Collar of SS., mixed up with observations that will only serve the purpose of darkening knowledge upon the subject of which he treats.
The Collar of SS. is found in great variety of {195} shapes, and at what precise time it became an ensign of equestrian nobility no one can tell. Collars were worn at least so far back as the days of Livy (i.e. the commencement of the Christian era); for he recounts that Manlius having pulled off the collar of a Gaul, took the name of _Torquatus_, and afterwards always wore the collar. Such being the case, there is no room for doubting that this ensign formed one of the ornaments of knighthood from the period of that dignity's earliest introduction into England.
There is a notion, from the circumstance of "Soverayne" being the favourite motto or impress of Henry IV., that the Collar of SS. takes its name from the initial letter of that word; and the introduction of the portcullis into the collar, which was the device of the House of Lancaster, is also considered by some as proof that the collar originated with that king. In the effigies, however, of Henry IV. and his queen, Joan of Navarre, in the Chapel of St. Thomas Becket, Canterbury Cathedral, the collar which appears round the neck of the queen (there is none upon that of the king) has no portcullis. And as to the derivations of the name of the collar from "Soverayne," from St. Simplicius, from the martyrs of Soissons (viz. St. Crespin and St. Crespinian, upon whose anniversary the battle of Agincourt was fought), from the Countess of Salisbury, of Garter notoriety, from the word "Souvenez" and, lastly, from Seneschallus or Steward (which latter is MR. NICHOLS' notion)--they may all be regarded as mere monkish or heraldic gossip.
Nicholas Upton, one of our earliest heraldic writers, who was present at the siege of Orleans in 1428, states,--"Rex etiam scoeie dare solebat pro signo vel titulo suo unum COLLARIUM de gormettis fremalibus equorum de auro vel argento;" whilst, in a wood-cut engraving of the arms of a German, Herr Florian Waldauff, of about the time of Albert Durer, are three collars, one of the letters SS. linkings into each other, terminating in front with portcullises. Put these notices together and they may be considered sufficient to demolish the Lancastrian origin theory of the collar, on the one hand, and to unfold the true source of the collar's nomenclature on the other, viz. that it comes from the S-shaped lever upon the bit of the bridle of the war steed.
To [Greek: Ph].'s question, "Who are the persons now privileged to wear these collars?" MR. NICHOLS answers, "I believe the reply must be confined to the judges, the Lord Mayor of London, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the kings and heralds of arms." The privilege of wearing a Collar of SS., so far as the various persons enumerated are concerned, is a mere official privilege, and can scarcely be cited in reply to [Greek: Ph].'s interrogative, except upon the principle, "Exceptio probat regulam." 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 their eldest sons, being of age, as choose to claim inauguration as knights. It is presumable too that the Collar of SS. is also an incident of the minor degree of knight bachelor (bas-chevalier seu miles-bachillarus); whilst the silver Collar of SS. belongs to every head of a family of ancient esquirage quality, bearing arms. It is true, the fashion of wearing the collar, whether gold or silver, may be said to have been in desuetude for centuries. But rights of blood never prescribe; and there are strong grounds to believe that there will again be a general revival of the use of such distinctions.
There are various other points bearing upon the subject of the Collar of SS., upon which I wish to offer some remarks, and with your permission I will return to the subject. I cannot, however, conclude without observing, that it would much add to the value of MR. NICHOLS' compilation if he would extend it so as to embrace a description of the floreal coronet of knighthood, the belt of honour, the helmet, scarf, ring, spars, &c.,--all indeed, that the words "ad recipiendum a nobis ARMA