forgotten? If the fund is more than sufficient for the purpose, the surplus might be invested on trust to perform the wish of Caxton, by keeping Chaucer's monument in repair for ever."—Gentleman's Magazine, August, p. 167.

Here we leave the matter for the present not, however, without the hope that the present age will do honour to the memories of two of our Illustrious Dead, and that few months will witness both a Caxton Memorial in the shape of a collective edition of his original writings, and the Restoration of the Monument of the Father of English Poetry.

Notes.

COLLAR OF SS.
(Vol. ii., pp. 89. 475.)

No less than nine long months have elapsed since you adopted my suggestion of limiting your columns, on the disputed question relative to the collar of SS., to a record of the names of those persons who, either on the monumental effigies or brasses, or in their portraits or otherwise, are represented as wearing that ornament; together with a short statement of the position held by each of these individuals in the court of the then reigning monarch, seeming to warrant the assumption. How is it that the invitation has not produced more than a single response? Is it that the combatants are more fond of discussing the probabilities of a disputed point, than of seeking for facts to aid in its illustration? I hope that this is not so, in an age that prides itself in its antiquarian and historical investigations; and I trust that, now the dismissal of the parliament has relieved many from onerous duties, your pages may benefit, not only on this but on other important subjects, by the vacational leisure of your learned contributors.

That I may not myself be chargeable with a continuance of the silence of which I complain, I now offer to you no less than eleven of the earliest names, principally taken from Boutell's Monumental Brasses, but some suggested in your own pages, on whose monuments or otherwise the collar occurs. To most of these I have added a few particulars seeming to warrant the assumption; and I doubt not that some of your correspondents will supply you with similar hints as to those of whom I have as yet been unable to trace anything applicable to the subject of enquiry.

1. The first of these is in 1382, seventeen years before the accession of Henry IV. It appears on the brass of Sir Thomas Burton, in Little Castreton Church, in Rutlandshire. This knight, we find, received letters of protection on accompanying the Duke of Lancaster to France in 1369, when Edward III. revived his claim to that kingdom. [1] Being thus one of the retainers of the duke, the assumption of his collar of livery may be at once accounted for.

[1] N. Fœdera, iii. 870.

2. The next that we have is on the monument of John Gower in the church of St. Saviour, Southwark. The poet died in 1402, 4 Henry IV. It is more than doubtful whether he was a knight, and the only ground that I can suggest for his being represented with the collar of SS. is, that he was in some manner, perhaps as the court poet, attached to the household of the king. Of his transferred devotion to Henry IV. we have sufficient evidence in the revision of his Confessio Amantis, from which he excluded all that he had previously said in praise of his patron Richard II.

3. Sir Thomas Massingberd died in 1406, and on his monument in Gunby Church in Lincolnshire, both he and his lady are represented with collars of SS. Why, I have still to seek.

4. In 1407 there is a similar instance of a knight and his lady being so ornamented. These are Sir William and Lady Bagot, whose monument is in Baginton Chruch, Warwickshire. Boutell says that he was the first who received this decoration from the king. Be this as it may, the Patent Rolls contain sufficient to account for his and his wife's assuming King Henry's livery from gratitude for the restoration of his land, which he had forfeited as an adherent to Richard II. [2]

[2] Cal. Rot. Pat. 236. 243.

5. Then follows Sir John Drayton, whose monument, dated in 1411, is in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire. It may be presumed that he was in the king's household; as in the beginning of the reign of Richard II. he was keeper of the royal swans; and early in that of Henry IV., was serjeant of the king's pavilions and tents. Thomas Drayton, who was made Assayer of the Mint in the year of Sir John's death, [3] was probably his son.

[3] Cal. Rot. Pat. 196. 259.; Devon's Issue Roll, 286.

6. In the following year, 1412, we have the collar of SS. represented on the brass of Sir Thomas Swynborne in Little Horkeley Church, Essex. Two or three years before, and perhaps at the time of his death, the knight held the offices of Mayor of Bordeaux, and of the king's lieutenant in those parts.

The last five of these are in the reign of Henry IV. In the reign of Henry V., I am not aware of any examples; but in that of Henry VI., we find five other instances.

7. In Trotton Church, Sussex, is the monument of Thomas Lord Camoys, who died in 1424, and of his wife; both of whom are distinguished by the collar. He was a Knight of the Garter, and commanded the left wing of the English army at the battle of Agincourt.

8. A monument, supposed to be that of Sir John Segrave, dated in 1425, occurs in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire: of whom I can state nothing.

9. On the brass of John Leventhorpe, Esq., in the church of Sawbridgeworth, in Hertfordshire, the collar is also to be found. He died in 1433, and was one of the executors named in the will of King Henry IV. [4]

[4] Devon's Issue Roll, 334.

10. The monument in Yatton Church, Somersetshire, representing a judge in his robes, is traditionally ascribed to Sir Richard Newton, who died Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1449. This is, I believe, the first example of a judge being represented with the collar of SS.

11. The silver collars of the king's livery bequeathed by the will of John Baret of Bury, may be presumed, although he did not die till after the accession of Edward IV., to be of the livery of Henry VI.; as he is not only represented on his tomb, which he had erected during Henry's reign, with the collar