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Ring Superstitions: Londesborough (R cueil des Historiens de)

In the 'Récueil des Historiens de France' we read that Passavant, Bishop of Mans, possessed a ring which had belonged to Gulpherius de Lastour, during the Crusades, which was very precious, and cured a great number of sick persons. A gold ring of the fourteenth century, in the Londesborough Collection, has an inscription which, freely translated, is 'May you be preserved from the evil eye!' In the Shrewsbury Museum is a small iron ring, with an intaglio representing a fawn springing out of a nautilus-shell. It was discovered at Wroxeter. This and similar devices the Rev. C. W. King ascribes as probable charms against the 'evil eye.' This superstition still prevails extensively in the East, and is also entertained in many parts of Europe. That it was well known to Romans we have the authority of Virgil : 'Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos' (Ecl. iii.).