_Serjeants' Rings_ (Vol. v., p. 59.).--T. P. asks if the custom of
serjeants-at-law presenting rings on taking the coif prevailed so long
back as 1670-80; and in C. W. Johnson's _Life of Sir Edward Coke_, 1845
(vol. i. p. 217.), he will find as follows:
"On the rings given by Coke were inscribed, 'Lex est tutissima
cassis'--the law is the safest helmet--a motto which has been
thought very well to apply to his future fortunes.
"This custom of giving rings is of very old standing. Chancellor
Fortescue, who wrote about 1465, tells us that all Serjeants, at
their appointment, 'shall give rings of gold to the value of forty
pounds at the least; and your Chancellor well remembereth that at
the time he received this state and degree, the rings which he
then gave stood him in fifty pounds.' (_Laud. Leg._, c. 59.)
Dugdale also gives an account of the Serjeants' rings in 1556.
Some rings given in 1669 were objected to as wanting weight."
I do not know where to refer T. P. for any record of the rings; but I
think if the mottoes and names of donors could be obtained, a very
amusing paper might be furnished; the variety would be great, some, as
Coke's, alluding to the importance of law; some, as Serjeant Onslow's
"Festina lente," punning on the name, &c.