253 



drawn against the authorship of the Marquis de Villars, from the reflec- 

 tions on the queen, would be perhaps still stronger in her case than in 

 his, as the last words of her Memoirs are devoted to a grateful recollec- 

 tion of the kindness which the queen had shown her, and to a hope that 

 in the Memoirs of another court, which she was about to write, she 

 would have an opportunity of giving a faithful portraiture de cette 

 aimable Eeine" — a promise which, in the two works I have just quoted, 

 and in the others mentioned in the notes, she does not fulfil,^ 



The Eev. De, Reeves (for De. William Bell) read the following 

 paper 



On- the so-called Ring-mon-ey, in eeference to many Specimens in 



THE POSSESSION" OF THE RiGHT HoN". THE EaEL OF LoNDESBOEOUGH, 

 AND MOEE ESPECIALLY AN IeISH ONE, WITH A MOVEABLE SwiVEL 



Ring. 



" Flexilis obtorti ad digitos efc circulus auri." 



It will at the present day be superfluous to prove, from the simi- 

 larity of our British antiquities with those of the continent in religious 

 rites and temples, or from an identical Anglo-Saxon language, and the 

 close resemblance of names for persons and places, as well as from uni- 

 formity in customs and usages, that much, nay, possibly all, that the 

 ancient historians of Germany have left us on these topics may be used 

 to illustrate the earliest religion and language, the nomenclature, and 

 the customs of our ancestors. Adam of Bremen, "Wittichind of Corvey, 

 Holmald of Bosan, Ditmar of Merseburg, and numerous others, give us 

 glimpses of manners and usages that may be usefully brought to bear 

 upon the imperfect relations of our own annalists ; nor is the benefit 

 unreciprocated. Continental writers call largely into requisition the 

 writings of Bede, of Asser, of I^ennius, and our Monkish historians, to 

 supply the deficiencies or elucidate obscurities in their own early re- 

 cords. For Englishmen, however, the best use that can be made of 

 foreign historical inquiries is only in so far as they tend in a more or 

 less remote degree to clear up what is forgotten or obscure in our own 

 history ; for manners and practices of distant countries that are with- 

 out relation to British objects, may be feasibly neglected or feebly re- 

 garded by us. 



It is with this view that we take up the subject of those curious 

 articles frequently found in the British empire, and commonly, and 

 possibly in part rightly, known under the name of Ring Monet, to 



en Europe, depuis 1672 jusqu' en 1579," alluded to by Mr. Planche in the introduction 

 to his translation of Madame d'Auhioy's Fairy Tales (feondon, 1858). It contains no 

 preface ; but Madame d'Aulnoy (or D'Anoy, as she is called), is incidentally mentioned 

 at p. 118, part 2. 



* "Memoires de la Cour d'Espagne (by Madame d'Aulnoy). Ala Haye, 1692. 

 Seconde partie, p. 212." 



E. I. A. PEOC. VOL, VIII. 2 M 



