Winchester.
_Collar of SS._ (Vols. iv. _and_ v., _passim_).--In the discussion on the
subject of the collar of SS., in the columns of "N. & Q.," I find no
mention of an incidental observation of Thomas Fuller, which occurs in the
notice of John Gower, the poet, in the Worthies of Yorkshire, and is
deserving of some notice:
"Another author (Stow) unknighteth him, allowing him only a plain
esquire, though in my apprehension the collar of SSS. about his neck
speaketh him to be more. Besides (with submission to better judgments)
that collar hath rather a civil than a military relation, proper to
persons in place of judicature; which makes me guess this Gower some
judge in his old age, well consisting with his original education."
MR. FOSS, I see, mentions (Vol. iv., p. 147.) the existence of the collar
on the poet's monument, and suggests that he might have worn it as a court
poet.