PREFACE.

ni

folio volume entitled “ The Institution, Laws, and Ceremoniesof the Most Noble Order of the Garter, collected and digestedinto one body, a work furnished with a variety of matter relatingto Honour and Noblesse,” which contains dissertations on“ Knighthood in general,” on “ The Religious Orders ofKnighthood in Christendom,” and on “ Orders absolutely Mili-tary ;” and he then describes the History of the Castle, Chapel,and College of Windsor, and the Institution of the Orderof the Garter; separate chapters being appropriated to theStatutes and Annals of the Order, to its Habits and Ensigns,to its Officers, to Elections, Investitures, and Installations, toFees, to the Grand Feast, to the Degradation of Knights, andto the Honours paid to deceased Companions; which arefollowed by Biographical Memoirs of the Twenty-five originalCompanions, and Lists of all the Knights of the Order, withPlates of their Arms.

Upon that volume, Ashmole bestowed immense labour andresearch, and as he had access to the Records of the Insti-tution, it will always form the great storehouse of informationon the subject. It was honoured by the especial approbationof the Sovereign, of the Foreign Princes who belonged to theOrder, and of the other Knights Companions, and obtainedfor its author applause and substantial rewards.

Many other works have certainly appeared, as well beforeas since 1724, in which the Order of the Garter has beentreated of; but as they did little more than copy, in anabridged and imperfect manner, the statements of Ashmole,they are not deserving of further notice.