The Keeper of the Jewel House has always been, and is to this day, a member of the Sovereign’s Household. In former times he held certain rights. privileges, and precedence, but these in the course of ages have mostly melted away, though his warrants of appointment have from time to time stated that he was to enjoy all the rights and privileges of his predecessors. For instance, one of the rights, or rather, as we should now style it, one of the duties of the Keeper, was never to let the crown out of his keeping. So definite were his instructions that he had personally to take the crown from the Tower to the King’s Palace, and with his own hand place it on the King’s head. He had then to follow the King wherever he went, say to the opening of Parliament, never allowing the crown to be out of his sight. On the return to the palace he was to take the crown off the King’s head, and return with it to the Tower. This procedure is now much altered. The Keeper of the Jewel House, on demand of the Lord Chamberlain, hands over the crown to him or his representative, takes a receipt for it, and has no further responsibility till the crown is returned to him. In Tudor days the Keeper of the Jewel House was generally made a Privy Councillor, and if not already of higher rank was created a Knight, and ranked as the senior Knight Bachelor of the Kingdom. At a coronation he wore a robe very like that of a Baron, but with a crown embroidered in gold on his left shoulder. A robe very like this is still the official robe of the Keeper; it is, however, of crimson silk more like that of a Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, with a golden crown embroidered on the left shoulder. The whole costume may be seen in Sir George Naylor’s book of the _Coronation of George IV_. In precedence the Keeper ranked after Privy Councillors and before all Judges, and had, as at present, the private entrée at all State functions at Court. As late as the seventeenth century none below the rank of Baron, and the Keeper of the Jewel House who ranked as a Baron, were allowed this privilege.