Next to the Garter the Order of the Bath is the most ancient and most honourable. Indeed, the Bath is entitled “The Most Honourable Order,” and though it has precedence below the Garter, Thistle, and St. Patrick, it is in some respects superior to these, for it can only be earned in reward for services rendered. It is also older than any other Order in the world except the Garter, being some fifty years older than the Order of the Golden Fleece. It was said by a foreigner, that any English title or decoration could be bought except the Order of the Bath. That is a somewhat sweeping assertion, though we ourselves allow that one of the blots on English public life is that peerages, baronetcies, and knighthoods can be, and are, bought from the political party in power. Happily it is still, as from the beginning, impossible to buy the Order of the Bath. Probably this fact, as well as its ancient and knightly origin, gives the Order its high standing, and we may venture to hope that it will never be otherwise. It is not perhaps generally known that the Order of the Bath literally came from the common or domestic hip-bath. Long before this Order was instituted it was customary for warriors, who led in those times very strenuous days and nights, fighting, eating and drinking, and making love, to take a warm bath the night before they were knighted. This ablution had partly a temporal and partly a spiritual significance. It was not, however, till 1399 that Henry IV determined to make a permanent institution of an Order for Knights of the Sword, and named it the Order of the Bath. Space does not allow of giving the full ritual, which may be read elsewhere,[22] but the actual taking of a warm bath was one of the leading features. This bath was taken in the large hall adjoining St. John’s Chapel in the White Tower, Tower of London. Whilst the Knight was in his bath the King came in accompanied by prelates and noblemen, and dipping his finger in the water made a cross on the Knight’s back. A curious complication arose in this connection when a Queen, in the person of Mary I, came to the throne, for naturally she could not go about making crosses on the backs of naked young Knights. But both in Queen Mary’s reign and in that of Queen Elizabeth the difficulty was tided over by delegating a nobleman of high rank to act for the Queen. On the King’s departure the Knight was put into a bed to dry and warm, bath towels apparently being little known in those days. Having thus become dry and warm the Knight put on a monk’s frock and then proceeded into St. John’s Chapel, where he watched his arms all night. On the morrow he rode in procession with other Knights of the Bath before the King to Westminster. This custom has long been discontinued; the Knight takes his bath at home as usual, and then proceeds to Buckingham Palace and is there Knighted by the King.