None of these interpretations seem to me to be clothed with sufficient probability to satisfy the[ inquirer : but there are two others, which cannot so easily be rejected.
   One of them is that of Mr. Beltz, who makes the letter the initial of "Souvenez," part of the motto " Souvenez-yous de Moy."  
   The other is the suggestion of Mr. J. G. Nichols, who thinks that it means "Senechallus," or steward; an office which John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, inherited in right of his wife, the daughter of Henry of Lancaster.
   To clear the way for the consideration of either of these, it will be better, in the first instance, to show that the letter S was the device of the Duke of Lancaster, and that it was used during the reign of Richard II. Both these facts are made apparent by an inventory "of the jewels, etc., belonging to King Edward III., King Richard II., Queen Anne, the Duchess of York, the Duke of Gloucester, and Sir John Golafre," which were delivered up by the Treasurer and Chamberlains of the Exchequer to John Eluet, Clerk, the receiver of the King's chamber, by virtue of a Privy Seal, dated on October 6th, 1399, within a week after the usurpation of Henry IV.¹ Among these are the following:—
   "Item, vm letters of S for a collar, each of xv pearls."²
    " Item, a pair of gilt silver basins, one standing on a foot, with letters of S of the livery of Mons. de Lancaster, and the cover with a coronet above graven with letter of S around, and the arms of Mons. de Lancaster within."³ 
    There is no evidence that collars were introduced in England anterior to the reign of Richard II., nor that they were used by the family of Lancaster before the
time of John of Gaunt. " The arms of Mons. de Lancaster",
  ¹  Kalendars and Inventories of the Exchequer, vol. iii. p. 313.
   ²  Ibid., p. 321.       ³  Ibid., p. 322.