LORD MAYOR NOT A PRIVY COUNCILLOR.
(Vol. iv., pp. 9. 137. 180.)
In p. 180. I find some observations respecting the rank of the Lord Mayor of London, which seem to require further elucidation. But I should not trouble you except for one passage, which leads me to think that the writer is under some little mistake. He seems to think that upon the occasion of a new king's accession, only Privy Councillors are summoned. This is not so. I remember upon the accession of George IV., that I received a summons, being then a member of the House of Commons and holding an official appointment; and some other private gentlemen were also summoned. I think that the summonses were issued from the Home Office, but of this I am not certain; nor do I know if the same practice has been adopted upon the subsequent accessions. I remember that we all met at Carlton House; that we all signed some document, recognising the new sovereign, which I apprehend to be the authority for the proclamation; but that the Privy Councillors only went in to the presence.
I understand that the theory for summoning me and others was that some persons of various ranks and grades of society should concur in placing the new king upon the throne.
All this is, however, mere speculation of my own. The fact of my summons is certain. As to the Lord Mayor being Right Honorable, why need we look for other authority than usage? Usage only gives the title of Right Honorable to a Privy Councillor being a Commoner. Usage only gives that title to a Peer. Excuse this gossip.
DN.
COLLARS OF SS.
(Vol. iv., p. 147.)
I have the pleasure to add to the early examples of the collar of SS. given by MR. EDWARD FOSS, the names of some personages whose monuments are either represented or described in Blore's Monumental Remains, Dugdale's History of St. Paul's, Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, and Stothard's Monumental Effigies.
1. On the effigy of Sir Simon Burley, engraved by Hollar for Dugdale, is a collar apparently marked, but very indistinctly, with SS. Sir Simon was a Knight of the Garter, Chamberlain to Richard II., and was beheaded in 1388.
2 and 3. Sir Robert Waterton and his wife, in Methley church, Yorkshire. The collar was issued to this knight, when he was an esquire, out of the great wardrobe of Henry Earl of Derby, in the 20th year of Richard II.
4. Sir William Ryther, in Harwood church, Yorkshire: he lived in the time of Richard II.