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a Maiinour, and fuch who are chofen from the feveralCounties to ferve in the High Courts of Parliament.

Miles, even in the Saxon Times, denoted fometimes aDignity. But about the Year 104 6, becoming a Titleof Honour, it is fince moft generally appropriated toPerfons who have received Knighthood correfpondentto Efs.es and Chevalier, tho’ indeed lefs proper } in regardKnighthood is the Dignity of Horfemanlhip, and theTenure of Lands by Knights Fees here in England,anciently called 'Regale Servitium, is in truth Horle Ser-vice 3 and the Tenants fuch as ferved the King onHorfeback in Wars, are Gentlemen at lead: (if not ofNoble Extraction.)

Minjhew fays, the Equites, which heretofore followedand accompanied the Emperor, are, in the GermanTongue, called Knechtes, that is, Servitors, or Minifters }but Camden fays, Knecht , in Saxon Cniht, was in far moreancient Times accepted as an honorary Title} and,among the old Germans , fignify’d a Perfon arm’d withSpear and Lance, (the Enfigns of their Knighthood)as in After-Times fuch were, among other Nations,adorned with a Girdle and Belt, fince called Equitesaurati, and fometimes fimply Milites,

The Addition Sir to the Names of all Knights Bane-rets, Knights of the Rath, and Batchelor Knights, pro-nounced at the Time when they are created, with thisCompellation : Arife, Sir John, or Sir Thomas, gfc. isaccounted Parcel of their Style, which the Banerets en-joy by virtue of a Claufe in their Patent. It is a Con-traction of the Old French Sire, taken for Seigneur, orLord, from the Greek. Ki/gt®-. But how it came to befirft given, we cannot find 3 neverthelefs, our EnglifiWriters have bellowed it upon the major Part of theNobility, after they had been received into the Orderof Knighthood} and in the Life of St. Thomas Becket ,written about the Time of King Edw. x. we meet withthe Title prefix’d to the Names of the four Knights,who flew the faid St. Thomas.

§. 6. The Enfigns of the Equellrian Order amongthe Romans, by which they were made, was a PublickHorfe, or a Gold Ring 3 yet Hill, to thofe who hadEqueftrian Cenfe, the Horfe was the ancienter Badgeof the two} but when thro’ the Multitude of thefeKnights no Publick Horfes were affigned, but to fuch\vho were ready to enter upon Military Service, and to