( 12 ? )
pan ions in mind, Not to admit any Thing in their dBions,"'if, ( or am ong their Thoughts, derogatory to themfelves and theirHonour.
«?«■ That Age did exceedingly abound with Imprefles,jvlotto’s ana Devices, and particularly King Edit. III.fV 1( was fo exceflively given up to them, that his Apparel,^ti Plate, Bed, Houfhold-Furniture, Shields, and even th# -Harnefs of his Horfes, and the like, were not withoutjb tits them, many of which now to defiant upon would be3 fruitlefs Attempt, feeing the Occafion of the Inven-ting tion, and the Circumftances are loft, that Ihould illu-r t!tj; ftrate them; and others, by reafon of their Brevity,feem’d infignificant, in regard fomething was defign-teoft edly omitted, and left to be underftood,. which cannotly Hii now be rightly fupply’d, fo as to arrive at the Mind ofmud the Inventor. Of this Number may be this Motto, Itad the is as it is, which was embroider’d upon a Doublet oftaftij that King; tho’ there are others which feem more eafyinjG* to be decypher’d ; as that daring Motto wrought uponlitl, p a his Surcoat and Shield provided to be ufed at a Tur-tttfi nament,
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§ 5. The Time when the Order was inftituted, Hi-ftorians differ widely about; Selden, Conifer, andothers, from FroiJJart (who wrote temf.Rich.il.') wouldhave it in the 18th of King Edit. III. But fince Froif-fart errs, in making the Number of Knights-Compa-nions no fewer than Forty, which is a grand Miftake,Why might not he trip in Point of Time, and con-found the Year of its Ereflion, with that wherein theFounder renew’d the Order of The Round Table, Wind-er being the Place for both. For fhould we admit,that during fome Part of the Solemnity held in thisKing’s 18th Year, when the Accident of the Lady’sGarter flipping off happen’d, what other Inference canbe made, but that he had only an Intention to put inExecution fomewhat afterwards ? Not that an Orderwas a£lually erefled at that Time: Befides, the Jollityof the Seafon, the Greatnefs of the Goncourle, and
the