Meport of Meetings for 1879, by James Hardy. 85 



16t]i July, 1829, "with, other relics, in the coffin of a bishop of 

 Chichester, in the cathedral of that city. The date of the tomb 

 is A.D. 1146. The other was a broken iron gilt ring, with a pale 

 sapphire, and is very similar to many Arabian and Indian rings. 

 The coins were nearly all of Henry HI., of England. Some of 

 them were of "William the Lion of Scotland, and two of them of 

 King John. "^' There is a famous ring in Perthshire called ' ' Inch- 

 brakie's Eing." In the days of darkness a poor woman of the 

 name of Catharine McNiven was burnt for a witch near the 

 rock of Crieff. The laird of Inchbrakie strove to the ut- 

 most to save poor Kate's life, though his exertions proved in 

 vain. '' When the flames were lighted, and her sufferings com- 

 menced, she is said to have uttered various predictions against 

 her enemies, and, turning round to Inchbrakie, to have spit a 

 blue stone out of her mouth, which she requested him to take 

 and keep, declaring that so long as it was preserved in the 

 family, his race would never cease to thrive. The stone re- 

 sembles, and is said to be an ancient sapphire. It is now set in 

 a gold ring, and is most carefully preserved."! This and the 

 following appear to have been " oriental sapphires." In the in- 

 ventory of John Edgar of Wedderlie, Co. Berwick, who deceased 

 in 1657, is included, "Ane broken gold ring with ane blue 

 stane."! The Sapphire of the ancients having been the Lapis 

 lazuli§, the virtues attributed to the one have been transferred to 

 the other ; hence nothing can be positively affirmed of the powers 

 either real or imaginery, that old writers have transmitted to us 

 regarding the sapphire ; but they may be all summed up in what 

 Eenodeeus, an old writer on precious stones, affirms of gems in 

 general, that they "adorn kings' crowns, grace the fingers, en- 

 rich our household stuff, defend us from enchantments, preserve 

 health, cure disease ; they drive away grief, cares, and exhilarate 

 the mind."|i 



Howick woods were approached through a canopy of over- 

 arching boughs from tall wayside trees. The party alighted 



* New Stat. Acct. Parish of Strathdon, p. 546. 

 t Ibid. Parish of Crieff. % The Scottish House of Edgar, p. 94. 

 § Beckmann's Hist, of Inventions, i., p. 468, &c. ^Bohn's Edition) : Pliny's 

 Nat. Hist, vi., p. 432, Note. (Bohn's Edition). Adams' Paulus ^Egineta, 

 iii., p. 228 (Sydenham Society). 



II Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Part 2, Sec. 4, Mem. I, Subs. 4. 



