The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-09-01
THE CROWN OF SCOTLAND.
ITS HISTORY AND sTRAGE ADVENTURES.

The ancient crown of Scotland, now in the
Castle of Edinburgh, has had adventures not
| unlike some of those of the Hungarian dia-
dem. II is supposed to have been made Tor
King Robert Bruce, and is formed OF two
circles of gold, the upper one being sur
] mounted by row of crosses and feurs-de-is,
while the lower and broader ring is adorned
with precious stones, in their rough. I'M
polished state. From this rise two arches OF
gold, which unite in ball and cross. Even
| when the Stuarts became kings of England
they came to Scotland after their English
coronation, to receive this crown at Scone.
Charles I, indeed, wished to have the crown
and regalia of Scotland sent up to London in
order that the ceremony might take place
there; but this was regarded as an infringe
ment of the rights OF the kingdom, and he
had to come to Scotland, where he was
crowned June IS, 1888. When, after his
fathers DEATH Charles III asserted his rights
in Scotland, he was crowned at Scone on
January l, 1851.
On Cromwells advancing across the bor-
der, the crown and regalia were sent away
from Edinburgh to the strong castle Of Dun
nottar, on the shores of the North Sea, lest
they should fall into his hands. They were
placed under the protection of a picked
garrison, commanded by the Earl of Mari
schal and Ogilvy, of Barras, veteran SOL
der.
Several guns were sent to reinforce the
castle, among others Mons. Meg, and the
great embrasure through which this monster
was fired is still shown at Dunnottar. On the
Sd of January, 1862, the Cromwellian General
Lambert, having closely invested the castle,
summoned it to surrender The summons
was rejected, and the siege begun. Ogilvy
had previously asked that ship might be
sent to carry off the crown, scepter and
sword of State but Charles had not been
able to comply with the request. 1t soon be-
came evident that the castle could not hold
out long, and it was therefore necessary to de-
wise some plan for saving the regalia.
The chief agent in the plot was the wife of
Rev. James Granger, of Kinnef, a small
church four miles from Dunnottar. She OBJ
tanned from Gen. Lambert permission to pass
the castle, and, on her return, secretly
brought away the Scottish crown. Her maid
followed her, bearing two large bundles of
lint as if for spinning; but in one of them the
sword of state was hidden, and in the other
the scepter On reaching Kinneff, she gave
them to her husband, and that night they
went into the church. raised flag of the
pavement in front of the pulpit, dug hole,
and buried there the crown and scepter. In
another part of the church they hid the sword
in the same way.
When, on the fall of the castle, the regalia
were found to be gone, great was Lambert's
indignation. Tradition says that he sus-
pected the Changers, and tortured them in
vain IN order to extort their secret. But sus-
picion was at length lulled to rest by the re-
port that the crown had been sent abroad.
Occasionally the minister and his wife went
by night into the church to change the cloths
in which the crown was wrapped, in order to
preserve it from the damp, and at the Resto-
ration they gave up the regalia in safety to
Charles II. A grant Of 1000 marks re warded
Mrs. Granger for her faithful service.
After the Union, when, on account of the
strength of the Jacobite party, the English
Government very unwisely exhibited on many
occasions the mistrust with which they re-
gar led the sentiment of Scottish nationality,
the crown and regalia, as its most striking
emblems, were shut up in strong Golfer in
the crown-room of Edinburgh Castle. This
took place in 1907, and there remained for
more than a century, until they were again
restored to lightly the commission appointed
for that purpose in 1918.