Likewise the King gave Sir William his signet ring to show to the Sheriff, that he might raise all his armed men to aid the others in their chase of Robin.

Thank God, that one was born at this same hour, Who did our work for us: we'll talk of Him: We shall go mad with thinking of ourselves We'll talk of Him, and of that new-made star, Which, as he stooped into the Virgin's side, From off His finger, like a signet-gem, He dropped in the empyrean for a sign.

In the British Museum is a brass signet stamp, more than two thousand years old, on which two lines of letters are very neatly engraved in relief, in the reversed order necessary for printing; and as the interstices are cut away very deeply and roughly, there is little doubt but that this stamp was used with ink on papyrus, parchment, or linen, for paper was not then known.