the
former and Β beneath the latter, indicating his titles Viscount Nelson
of the Nile and Duke of Bronté. Below the letters is the name Trafalgar
and on the exterior of the hoop appears Nelson's motto "Palmam qui meruit ferat " (Let him bear the palm who merits it).
There
is historic record of two memorial rings, one set with an emerald and
the other with a sapphire, the gifts of two unhappy royal personages
made shortly before death. The first of these rings was bestowed upon
the great French preacher Bossuet by the Stuart princess Henrietta
Anne, who, on her death-bed, directed that after she had gone to rest
there should be given to Bossuet " the emerald ring she had ordered to
be made for him." Of the second ring, that set with a sapphire, we
learn that shortly before her execution in 1587, the unfortunate Mary
of Scotland took it from her finger and sent it to her faithful
follower, Lord John Hamilton, in whose family it has since then been
passed down from generation to generation as a priceless heirloom.70
Several
memorial or mourning rings are among the treasures of the Figdor
Collection in Vienna. One of these is of massive silver and has the Old
French inscription: "dortcouat," (rest in peace) ; it was
found at Huy, near Statte, Belgium, and represents work of the
fifteenth century. Another is of enamelled gold, and is evidently for
a woman's wear. The inscription is : " R. C. Not lost but gone before,"
in gilt letters on a white enamel ground. This is an English ring of
about 1800. A German ring of the eighteenth century has its head formed
in the shape of a coffin, on which are skull and cross-bones; on its
sides is the inscription: " Hir ist
70
A. E. Cropper, " Some Notes On Three Classes or Types of Rings," in The
Connoisseur, London, vol. xix, p. 184, September to December, 1907.
