Aug. 24. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



195 



shapes, and at what precise thne it became an en- 

 sign 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 Torc/uaius, 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 introduc- 

 tion 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 intro- 

 duction of the portcullis into the collar, which was 

 the device of the House of Lancaster, is also con- 

 sidered by some as proof that the collar originated 

 with that king. In the efSgies, however, of 

 Henry IV. and his queen, Joan of Navarre, in the 

 Chapel of St. Thomas Becket, Canterbury Cathe- 

 dral, the collar which appears round the neck of 

 the queen (there is none upon that of the king) 

 has 110 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 anni- 

 versary the battle of Agincourt was fought), from 

 the Countess of Salisbury, of Garter notoriety, 

 from the word " Souvenez," and, lastly, from Sene- 

 schallus 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 scocie dare solebat 

 pro signo vel titulo suo unum CoIlLArium de gor- 

 mettis 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. linking 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 <l>.'s question, " Who are tlie jjersons now 

 privileged to wear these collars ?" Mr. Niciiox,s 

 answers, " I believe the re[)ly must be confined to 

 the judges, the Lord Mayor of London, the Lord 

 Mayor of Dublin, the kings and heral<ls 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 bo cited 

 in reply to *.'s interrogative, except upon the 

 principle, " Exceptio probat regulam." The per- 

 soas now privileged to wear the ancient golden 



Collar of SS. are the equites aurati, or knights (che- 

 valiers) 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 in- 

 auguration 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 fiishion 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 distmctions. 



There are various other points bearing upon the 

 subject of the Collar of SS„ upon which I wish to 

 offiir 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, spurs, &c., — all, 

 indeed, that the words " ad recipiendum a nobis 

 ARMA militaria" implied in the ancient proclama- 

 tions for taking the order of knighthood. If Mr. 

 Nichols, in addition to this, will show also wherein 

 the knights of this equestrian quality difi'ered from 

 such persons as were distrained " ad se milites faci' 

 endos," he will solve anumber of knotty difficulties 

 in heraldic literature, and will enable the public 

 generally to understand that ther*' are many more 

 chivalrous rights and privileges inherent in the 

 subject than what is dreamt of in the philosophy 

 either of the court at St. James's, or the college on 

 St. Bennet's Hill. Armiger. 



TENTSON. COLERIDGE. EXTRACT TROM BA- 



KER's MSS. on BARTH. DODTNGTON, and WILLIAM 

 JENKYN. 



The well-known lines in Tenyson's Locksley 

 Hall, — 



" Tills is truth the poet sings. 

 That a sorrow's crown of sorrow is, remembering 

 happier things." 



appear to be taken from Dante (Jnfemo, canto y.. 

 verse 121.)),-:^ 



" nessun maggior dolore, 



Che ricordarsi del tempo felico 



Nella miseria." 



which is imitated by other writers, quoted by Mr; 

 Cary. (Chaucer, Troilus and Creseide, iii. 1626. 

 Marino, Adune, c. xiv., st. 100. Fortinguerra, 

 liiciurdetto, c. xi. st. 83.) 



In Coleridge's second Laij Sermon (ed. 1;839, 

 p. 365.) the passage — 



