Traditions of Remote Periods, &c. (Vol. v., p. 77.).
—It is a well-known fact that the proud Duke of Somerset, and Prince George, his successor as a Knight of the Garter, occupied the space between 1684 and 1820. The anecdote, however, related of George IV. by your intelligent correspondent C. cannot be correct, because the blue ribbon was conferred upon Lord Moira by the Prince Regent in June, 1812, who advanced him in 1816 to the Marquisate of Hastings, and George III. did not die till 1820. The story, therefore, must belong to the period of the Regency, and not to the commencement of the reign of George IV.
BRAYBROOKE.
Audley End.
There is some error in the statement of C. George IV. succeeded to the throne 29th January, 1820, and the vacancy in the Order of the Garter occasioned by his accession he gave to the Marquess of Buckingham, who was elected 12th June that year. The Earl of Moira was elected and invested in 1812, upon the vacancy created by the death of William, fifth Duke of Devonshire, and was the third knight made during the Regency. (See Beltz's Succession of the Knights, pp. ccxi. and ccxiv.) Lord Moira never occupied the stall of George IV., which before his accession was that of Prince of Wales.
At the time of the death of the Duke of Somerset, in 1748, there were several vacancies; and on the 22d June, 1749, George Prince of Brunswick, afterwards King George III., was elected in the room of John Earl Powlett, and John Earl Granville was elected in the room of the Duke of Somerset. (See Beltz, cciii.)
G.
Heraldical MSS. of Sir Henry St. George Garter (Vol. v., p. 59.).
—M—N, in "N. & Q." of the 17th ultimo, wishes to know what became of these valuable MSS. I understand that, just before the auction at Enmore Castle in 1831, these MSS. passed into the possession of the late Sir Matthew Tierney, Bart., by private contract, or some arrangement of the kind. And most likely they now are in the possession of his brother, Sir Edward Tierney, Bart., who for a long period was the confidential friend, as well as the land and law agent of the fourth Earl of Egmont: in any case, he is the only person who can give M—N the information he requires respecting them: and, if written to on the subject, I have no doubt will communicate all he knows about him.
E. A. G.