Minor Notes.
_Traditions of remote Periods through few Links_ (Vol. iv., p.
484.).--One evening, very soon after his accession, George IV. said that
he had done that morning an extraordinary thing, namely given (to Lord
Moira) _a garter_ which had been but once disposed of since the reign of
Charles II. This, considering that men (except in royal cases) never
obtain the garter when under age, and seldom till they are somewhat
advanced in life, seemed surprising; but his Majesty thus explained it.
Charles II. gave the garter to the Duke of Somerset in 1684; the duke
died at the end of 1748, and (Frederic, Prince of Wales, being alive)
his son, afterwards George III., received, a few days after, the vacant
garter as an _ordinary knight_, and though he subsequently became
sovereign, he always dated his rank in the Order from 1749; and when
George IV. succeeded as sovereign, his own stall, which was in fact that
of George III., was filled by Lord Moira. Thus it is certainly true that
two knights of the garter occupied the whole period between the reigns
of Charles II. and George IV.
I may add on this same topic of tradition, that I had a grand-uncle born
early in the reign of Queen Anne, who was intimate with Pope, Swift, and
Arbuthnot, from 1730 to their respective deaths; he used to tell me
anecdotes of their society, about which I was, I dare say, at the age of
sixteen or seventeen, old enough to propose _Queries_, but not to make
_Notes_, which I much regret.