lieve I
am still right. I may admit that, if it was literally a livery, it would
be worn only by those to whom the king gave it; but my present
impression is, that it was termed the king's livery, as being of the
pattern which was originally distributed by the king, or by the Duke of
Lancaster his father, to his immediate adherents, but which was
afterwards _assumed_ by all who were anxious to assert their loyalty, or
distinguish their partizanship as true Lancastrians; so that the statute
of 2 Hen. IV. was rendered necessary to restrain its undue and
extravagant _assumption_, for sundry good political reasons, some notion
of which may be gathered by perusing the poem on the deposition of
Richard II. published by the Camden Society. And 4thly, Where ARMIGER
disputes my conclusion, that the assumers were, so far as can be
ascertained, those who were attached to the royal household or service,
it will be perceived, by what I have already stated, that I still adhere
to that conclusion. I do not, therefore, admit that the statute of 2
Henry IV. shows me to be incorrect in any one of those four particulars.
ARMIGER next proceeds to allude to Manlius Torquatus, who won and wore
the golden torc of a vanquished Gaul: but this story only goes to prove
that the collar of the Roman _torquati_ originated in a totally
different way from the Lancastrian collar of livery. ARMIGER goes on to
enumerate the several derivations of the Collar of Esses--from the
initial letter of _Soverayne_, from _St. Simplicius_, from _St. Crispin_
and _St. Crispinian_, the martyrs of Soissons, from the _Countess of
Salisbury_, from the word _Souvenez_, and lastly, from the office of
_Seneschalus_, or Steward of England, held by John of Ghent,--which is,
as he says, "Mr. Nichols's notion," but the whole of which he
stigmatises alike "as mere monkish or heraldic gossip;" and, finally, he
proceeds to unfold his own recondite discovery, "viz. that it comes from
the S-shaped lever upon the bit {250} of the bridle of the war
steed,"--a conjecture which will assuredly have fewer adherents than any
one of its predecessors. But now comes forth the disclosure of what
school of heraldry this ARMIGER is the champion. He is one who can tell
us of "many more rights and privileges than are dreamt of in the
philosophy either of the court of St. James's or the college of St.
Bennet's Hill!" In short, he is the mouthpiece of "the Baronets'
Committee for Privileges." And th