( i8o )
The general difference of the Collars appropriate tothe before-named Degrees, is this; Knights have allow’dthem Collars of Silver gilt, but Efquires only Silver-and therefore in the Creating of an Herald, in part ofthat Ceremony, he is made an Efquire, by putting onhim a Collar of SS’s of Silver; and fo is a Serjeant atArms.
The Kings of England have fometimes been pifturedwith a Collar of SS’s about their Arms, in like manneras the Garter doth furround them, as appears from anImpreffion of King Henry VlII’s Privy Signet; whereonhis Royal Arms crown’d are encircled with a Collar ofSS’s, to the lower End of which areaffix’d Two Port-cullifles.
5 9. We come now to the letter George of the Order;and we do not find that the Effigies of St. George was atany time worn by the Sovereign or Knights-Compa-nions, before the Breaft or under the Arm, as nowufed till the 13 th of Henry VIII. But then that Kingdecreed in a Chapter held at Greenwich, the Morrow afterSt. George’s Day, That every Knight fhould wear loofelybefore his Breaft the Image of St. George in a GoldChain, or otherwife, in a Ribband, the fame to befatten'd within the ennobled Garter, for a manifeftDiftinftion between the Knights-Companions, and 0-thers of the Nobility and Knights, who, according tothe Mode of thofe Times, wore large Gold Chains,the ordinary Enfigns of Knighthood. And thus thewearing the Medal or Jewel, ufually call’d the leflerGeorge, to diftinguifh it from the other Work at theCollar of the Order, firft receiv’d the Injun&ion, andhath fince been frequently ufed.
This George was, for the moftpart, pure Gold curi-oufly wrought, but divers of them were exquifitelygraved in Onyx’s and Agats, and with fuch a happyCollection of the Stones, that heightned and receivedtheir Beauty by the Skill of the Artificer, in contrivingthe Figures and Hiftory, the natural Tinfture of theStones have fo fitted them with Colours for Flcfh, Hair,and every thing elfe, even to Surprize and Admiration.In this Jewel is St. George reprefented in a Riding
Pofture
$
(tit®
V
flat®
jtGta
ijAii
UC
[Mr
kfwi
ram
auuji
'fed
ftOn
% |