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not only to Seal the Original Statutes, appointed to re-main perpetually within the Treafury of lVmdfor College,as alfo thofe Copies of which each Knight-Companion isobliged to conferve one, but likewife all Letters ofLicence to any of the Knights-Companions defirous ofwinning Honour abroad, and all Mandates and Certifi-cates, relating to the Order.

After what Model the firfl Seal was compos’d,we have no exa£! Relation. Polydore Virgil tells us, Thatwhen the Founder of the Order had fixed Choice ofSt. George for its Patron, he reprefented him Armed,and Mounted on an Horfe, bearing a Silver Shield, andthereon a Red Crofs, but whether St. George thus de-signed, was on the firft Seal, or only a Scutcheon of hisArms, as in latter times, is uncertain. But his Authorobferves that the Founder Habited his Soldiers ia whiteJackets or Coats, and on their Breafts and Backs fowedRed Crofles, parallel to the Arms affigned to St. George,as well as to the Kingdom of England , put under hisPatronage, which Arms the Sovereigns of the Order,have ever fince exhibied in their Standards. But be-fides this Common Seal King Hen. V. in the 9th Year ofhis Reign, Inftituted a privy Signet, in cafe the Sove-reign fhould be called out of this Kingdom uponweighty Affairs. The intent thereof was to affix it to allAfts pafled by the Sovereign beyond Sea, to diftinguifhthem from thofe of his Deputies in England. KingHen, VIII’s Statutes, Ordain the making both of a Com-mon Seal and Signet, and dire£l that the Arms of theOrder fhould be Engraven upon each of them. TheCommon Seal ufed in his Reign was a Garter, within ita Shield having the Crofs of St. George, impaling theNational Arms, the faid Shield encompaffed with twoBranches hanging from the Regal Crown, whichdebrufes part of the Garter 5 the Signet being defignedafter the fame manner, but lefs: Temp. 5? ac. I. it fuf-fered no other alteration, but only in the NationalArms, by admitting the Quarterings of Scotland andIreland, and new-fafhioning the Crown, omitting the fuf-penfion of the Shield.

There was a Seal made at the beginning of theReign of King Cha. I. which being efteemed too littlefor the Grandure and Honour of the Sovereigns Com-

miffions,