PREFACE.

XV

the names and honours of British Heroes, and which must begratifying to the just pride, because conducive to the fame,of the Families of those whom it commemorates, will receivesome share of Public patronage.

With respect to the Members of the Orders to whom thevolumes are more particularly addressed, it can hardly beimagined, that they will not seek to possess a Book whichrecords their Names and Honours, and makes them acquaintedwith the History and Regulations of those Honourable Frater-nities, into which it was their ambition to be admitted. The' right to wear a Ribband or a Star is the least valuable part oftheir distinctions :—the real honour, is to belong to Institutionsof which the Sovereign is the Head and Chief, and which havebeen rendered illustrious by the merits and services of the indi-viduals, who, from time to time, have been appointed to them.

Of the propriety of Knights being well acquainted with theconstitution, history, and rules of their Order, our ancestorswere fully aware; and that duty is so strongly inculcated bya writer of the fifteenth century, in “ The Book of the Ordreof Chyvalry or Knyghthode,” which was “ translated out ofFrench into English at a request of a gentle and noble Esquire,”and presented to King Richard the Third by Caxton, aboutthe year 1484, that these remarks could not possibly beconcluded in more appropriate words :

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