This
is said to have been a gimmal-ring, two diamonds joining together to
form a heart. One half was kept by Elizabeth who gave the other half to
Mary. This appeal to the tender mercies of the Virgin Queen, and Mary's
hope, were in vain, for " she cutt off her head for all that " as
Aubrey dryly puts it.45
Several
epigrams on this diamond were written by the Scotch poet and publicist
George Buchanan (1506-1582), the best being as follows:46
Quod te jampridem fruitur, videt, ac amat absens, Haec pignus cordis gemma, et imago mei est.
Non est candidior, non est haec purior ilio, Quamvis dura magis, non magis firma.
This has been rendered :
The gem which saw thee near and loves thee still, Is pledge and image of my heart and will.
My heart is not less white or pure than this, And though less hard, 'tis quite as firm I wis.
A
memorial ring was sent by Mary of Scotland, just before her execution
at Fotheringay Castle, February 8, 1587, to her faithful follower and
kinsman, Lord John Hamilton, with an affectionate message and her last
farewell. This ring, set with a sapphire, was handed down from
generation to generation in the Hamilton family, and was seen, in 1857,
at Hamilton Palace, by Miss Agnes Strickland. She described the
sapphire as being large, of rectangular form, and cut with a number of
facets, a kind of rose-cutting; the setting was of blue enamelled gold
in the style favored by sixteenth century
45 In Thorns' "Anecdotes and Traditions," London, 1839, p. 107 (Camden Soc. Pub.).
46 Buchanan, " Poems," St. Andrews, 1594, p. 117.
