Seven long years he has been on the sea, With a hey lillelu and a how lo lau, And Hynd Horn has looked how his ring may be, And the birk and the brume blooms bonnie. But when he looked this ring upon, With a hey lillelu and a how lo lau, The shining diamonds were pale and wan, And the birk and the brume blooms bonnie. Oh! the ring it was both black and blue, With a hey lillelu and a how lo lau, And she’s either dead or she’s married, And the birk and the brume blooms bonnie. A curious passage occurs in a letter addressed by Lord Chancellor Hatton to Sir Thomas Smith, preserved among the Harleian MSS., relating to an epidemic then prevailing: ‘I am likewise bold to commend my humble duty to our dear mistress (Queen Elizabeth) by this letter and ring, which hath the virtue to expel infectious airs, and is (as it letteth me) to be worn between the sweet duggs, the chaste nest of pure constancy (!). I trust, sir, when the virtue is known it shall not be refused for the value.’ ‘Medijcinable’ rings for the cure of the falling sickness and the cramp are mentioned in the Household Books of Henry IV. and Edward IV.; the metal they were composed of was what formed the King’s offering to the Cross on Good Friday, that day being appointed for the blessing of the rings. The following entry occurs in the account of the seventh and eighth years of Henry IV. (1406). ‘In oblacionibus domini regis factis adorando crucem in capella infra manerium suum de Eltham, die parasceves, in precio trium nobilium auri, et v. solidorum sterlyng, xxv. s.’ ‘In denariis solutis pro eisdem oblacionibus reassumptis, pro annulis medicinalibus inde faciendis, xxv. s.’ A ring considered to possess some healing or talismanic virtues was also termed, in mediæval Latin, _vertuosus_. Thus Thomas de Hoton, rector of Kyrkebymisperton, 1351, bequeathed to his chaplain ‘j. zonam de serico, j. bonam bursam, j. firmaculum, et j. anulum vertuosum. Item, domino Thome de Bouthum, j. par de bedes de corall, j. annulum vertuosum.’