Chapter THREE

RINGS HAVING SUPPOSED CHARMS OR VIRTUES, AND CONNECTED WITH
DEGRADATION AND SLAVERY, OR USED FOR SAD OR WICKED PURPOSES.

1. Antiquity of Amulets and Enchanted and Magical Rings;
Samothracian Rings; Double Object in Amulets; Substance and Form
of them. 2. Precious Stones and their Healing or Protective
Powers: Jasper; Diamond; Ruby; Carbuncle; Jacinth; Amethyst;
Emerald; Topaz; Agate; Sapphire; Opal; Cornelian; Chalcedony;
Turquoise; Coral; Loadstone; Sweating Stones. 3. Enchanted Rings;
those possessed by Execustus; Solomon’s Ring; Ballads of Lambert
Linkin and Hynd Horn. 4. Talismanic Ring; Elizabeth of Poland;
Ring against Poison offered to Mary of Scotland; Rings from the
Palace at Eltham and from Coventry; Sir Edmund Shaw; Shell Ring.
5. Medicinal Rings. 6. Magical Rings; Ariosto; Ring of Gyges; Sir
Tristram; Cramp Rings; Rings to cure Convulsions, Warts, Wounds,
Fits, Falling Sickness, etc.; Galvanic Rings; Headache and Plague
Rings; Amulet against Storms. 7. Ordeal. 8. Punishment in time of
Alfred. 9. Founding of Aix-la-Chapelle. 10. Ring on a Statue. 11.
Bloody Baker. 12. The Borgia Ring. 13. Rings held in the Mouth. 14.
Rings used by Thieves, Gamblers and Cheats. 15. Roman Slave. 93

CHAPTER FOUR.

RINGS COUPLED WITH REMARKABLE HISTORICAL CHARACTERS OR
CIRCUMSTANCES.

1. Ring of Suphis; Pharaoh’s Ring given to Joseph. 2. Rings of
Hannibal; Mithridates; Pompey; Cæsar; Augustus and Nero. 3. Cameo.
4. Ethelwoulf; Madoc; Edward the Confessor; King John; Lord L’Isle;
Richard Bertie and his Son Lord Willoughby; Great Earl of Cork;
Shakspeare’s Signet-Ring; The Ring Queen Elizabeth gave to Essex;
Ring of Mary of Scotland and one sent by her to Elizabeth; Darnley;
The Blue Ring; Duke of Dorset’s Ring in the Isle of Wight supposed
to have belonged to Charles the First, and Memorial Rings of this
Monarch; Earl of Derby; Charles the Second; Jeffrey’s Blood-Stone;
The great Dundee; Nelson; Scotch Coronation Ring; The Admirable
Crichton; Sir Isaac Newton; Kean; Wedding Ring of Byron’s Mother.
5. Matrons of Warsaw. 6. The Prussian Maiden. 148