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In countries where there are peers and degrees of nobility, it is the
custom of the sovereign to reward any great deed by making the doer of
it a peer of the realm, that is to say, a duke, a marquis, an earl, a
viscount, or a baron; baronets and knights are not peers.
In the olden times these gifts of nobility were often accompanied by
some personal service to the sovereign, by the performance of which the
holder of the title secured his patent or right to it. At the time these
grants were made the services had some especial and important meaning.
Nowadays they only seem strange and rather silly. Despite this fact, the
services must still be rendered, else the peer loses his patent of
nobility.
The article in _The Century Magazine_ tells of these things, and how the
Duke of Norfolk is obliged to furnish the sovereign with the glove worn
on the right hand during the coronation service, and also to support the
monarch's right arm during such times as the sceptre is carried in the
hand.
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