by the browbeating of witnesses and accused, and the imposition of capital sentences, wherever possible. It was at a somewhat later date, in 1685, just after the accession of James II, that Jeffreys conducted the trials of the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth's adherents, which came to be known as the "Bloody Assize." This fact of the presentation was published in the Royal Gazette, thus notably strengthening Jeffreys' prestige. So general, however, was the reprobation of his heartless and bloodthirsty administration of his judicial office that the ring was called "Jeffreys' blood-stone." 55 In March, 1748, as some ploughmen were tilling a field seven miles from Mullingor, County Westmeath, Ireland, they discovered a grave, the bottom, sides and ends of which were formed each of a single slab of stone. Within the grave were the bones of a man of gigantic stature, and also an urn and a valuable ring, set with twenty-five diamonds. Bishop Pococke, treating of this ring, mentions the fact that Rosa Failge, eldest son of Cathoir More, known as Cathoir the Great, who reigned in 122 A.D., was called the "Hero of Rings," but the writer adds that the ring could scarcely have belonged to him, since diamonds do not appear to have been known in Ireland at this early date.56 A most interesting Washington relic is a pearl and gold ring made in his lifetime and containing a lock of his hair placed beneath a conical glass. This is encircled by a setting of blue and white enamel, a square of red being set at each corner, and around this a circle of thirteen pearls, the number of the original States. This 55 Gilbert Barnet (Bishop of Salisbury), "History of His Own Time," London, 1724, 1736. First published by his son Thomas, after the bishop's death in 1715. 56 Archæologia, vol. ii, pp. 32–35, London, 1773. Figured on plate i, figs. 1 and 2. ring was given by Washington to Lieut. Robert Somers. The latter lost his life while fighting the Algerene pirates in Tripoli, but before his departure he confided the ring to the care of his sister, Sarah Keen. It is now owned by Vice-Chancellor E. B. Leaming of Camden, New Jersey, who inherited it from his paternal grandmother, an heir to Somers' estate. Only two other rings containing Washington's hair are known of, one in Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh on the Hudson, the other in the Boston Museum.57 In far-away Sweden there has been preserved a historic Washington relic. This is a ring given by the Revolutionary leader to Lafayette before the latter's return to France after the victorious Yorktown campaign. The ring passed from Lafayette to his intimate friend, Baron Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein, Swedish ambassador to France. The latter, on a visit to his native land gave it to his brother, Major Bogislaus Staël von Holstein, in whose family it was transmitted as an heirloom until it reached the hands of the maternal grandfather of the present owner, Mr. Gösta Frölen of Falun, Sweden. The ring is of gold and is set with a miniature portrait of Washington. It is said that two other rings were given by Washington about the same time to two Swedish noblemen, who had served as adjutants to Rochambeau. The presentation occurred at a banquet given in their honor, just before their departure for their native land, at the City Tavern in Philadelphia, November 11, 1782. In bestowing these gifts Washington is said to have used the following words: "I am happy to be here amongst men belonging to the race of my own early ancestors." All trace of these rings has been lost. 57 George Frederick Kunz and Charles H. Stevenson, "The Book of the Pearl," New York, 1908, p. 438. V BETROTHAL (ENGAGEMENT) RINGS, WEDDING (NUPTIAL) RINGS, AND LOVE TOKENS SPE PECIAL wedding-rings, as we understand them, were not used at an early period, the espousal ring being employed at the wedding ceremony also. At a later time, a signet was set in the anulus pronubus, or betrothal ring, to signify that the spouse was to have the right of sealing up the household goods, and occasionally a small key formed part of the ring, with a similar significance. We have a testimony to this view in the words of the marriage ceremony: "With all my worldly goods I thee endow." The wives of our day are quite disposed to accept this passage in its literal sense, although some may incline to a more liberal interpretation of the promise to love, honor and obey their husbands. The ring as a pledge of love is said to be first mentioned in Roman literature by Plautus in his "Miles Gloriosus " (Act IV, sc. i, v. 11); this passage, however, does not refer to a nuptial ring, but rather to a love token. Somewhat distantly related to the betrothal or wedding rings were those given by lovers to the objects of their affection. Of such a ring the Roman poet Ovid writes, apostrophizing it as "a ring soon destined to encircle the finger of a beauteous girl, a ring having no worth except the love of the giver." It was to be a gift to the poet's ladylove Corinna.' The ring sent by 1 Federici Augusti Junii, "De annulo Romanorum sponsalitio," Lipsiæ, 1744, citing Ovidii, lib. ii, Amor. Eleg. xv. a fair lady, as a token of love to a handsome soldier, in the "Miles Gloriosus" of Plautus was also of this class. The custom of placing the betrothal or wedding ring upon the fourth finger seems undoubtedly to owe its origin to the fancy that a special nerve, or vein, ran directly from this finger to the heart. Macrobius, in his Saturnalia,2 alludes to the belief in the following words: "Because of this nerve, the newly betrothed places the ring on this finger of his spouse, as though it were a representation of the heart." Macrobius asserts that he derived his information from an Egyptian priest. It has been conjectured that this was not the real source of the custom, but that in the church service it was usual for the Christian priest to touch three fingers successively with the ring while saying: "In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," and then to place it upon the last finger touched. We know that this was the usage in the bestowal of episcopal rings, and later with wedding rings, but the express statement cited from the pagan writer Macrobius shows that in the earlier marriage or betrothal ceremony this custom must have had an entirely different origin. During the reign of George I of England it was not unusual to wear the wedding ring on the thumb, although it had been placed on the fourth finger at the marriage ceremony. Possibly this custom may have arisen because exceptionally large wedding rings were favored by fashion at that time. That wedding rings were often worn on the thumb in the middle of the seventeenth century is proved by the lines from Samuel Butler's Hudibras quoted on another page.3 Ecclesiastical rituals in France from the eleventh to 2 Saturnalia, lib. vii, cap. 13. 3 See page 222. |