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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 1  1858  page 91

Hackington, or St Stephen's’, Canterbury. Collar of SS. 
By Edward Foss, F.S.A.

each of the letters S, a form which has continued from that time to the present, with the exception of the eleven years during which the monarchy was in abeyance. The collar as now worn is very gorgeous and large in dimensions. That of Chief Justice Lord Denman consists of twenty-eight of the letters and twenty-seven of the knots, besides the two portcullises and the rose ; the diameter of the latter being about an inch and threequarters, and the rest of the chain in proportion.
   Of the collars worn by the Chiefs of the three Courts at "Westminster, only one has any interest on the score of antiquity; those of the Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench and of the Chief Baron of the Exchequer having, each of them, been renewed twice in the present century. 
   The King's Bench collar worn by Lord Ellenborough could be traced back through his predecessors to Sir Matthew Hale, the renowned Chief Justice under Charles II. in 1671; and had been transmitted to each of them on a payment settled by custom of £100. Lord Ellenborough, on his retirement, choosing to retain it, Sir Charles Abbot (afterwards Lord Tenterden) was obliged to provide himself with a new one. This descended to Lord Denman on the usual payment; but as, on that nobleman's resignation, his successor did not take it, his Lordship transferred it to the Corporation of Derby, whose mayors will thus in future be decorated with the livery collar of the earl who took his title from that town, and who, as Henry IV., first attached it as a mark of honour to the members of the royal household.

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