In an explanation of what are called the sacred and royal habits and other ornaments wherewith monarchs of England are invested on the day of coronation, we have a description of the king’s and queen’s coronation rings. The king’s is a plain gold ring, with a large table ruby violet, wherein a plain cross or cross of St. George is curiously enchased. The queen’s coronation ring is likewise gold, with a large table ruby set therein and sixteen other small rubies round about the ring, whereof those next to the collet are the largest, the rest diminishing proportionally. In the account of Ancient Regalia which were destroyed and dissipated in the time of the Commonwealth in England, there is no mention of a ring. In the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-six, some workmen discovered a monument while repairing Winchester Cathedral, in England.[120] It contained the body of King Canute, and was remarkably fresh. There was a wreath around the head, several ornaments of gold and also silver bands; upon a finger was a ring, in which was set a large and remarkably fine stone; while in one of the hands was a silver penny. This silver penny was not for “the ferryman that poets write of,” as was the piece of money in the mouths of the Roman knights whose passing-away bodies we have before referred to; but, although it may have been for Peter and not Charon, is it not probable that we find here a custom of Christian times springing out of heathen root? A statue of Jupiter has been turned into a Christ; and that which the Roman used for the boatman of Styx, is here meant for one who had the key of heaven. While Henry the Second, of England, was rebuilding Westminster Abbey, the sepulchre of Sebert, king of the East Angles, was opened.[121] The body was dressed in royal robes, and there was a thumb-ring, in which was set a ruby of great value. Horace Walpole, having reference to the opening of this monarch’s tomb, complains, like an antiquary, of the reburying the king’s regalia. “They might, at least, have cut out the portraits and removed the tomb [of King Sebert] to a conspicuous situation; but though this age is grown so antiquarian, it has not gained a grain more of sense in that walk--witness, as you instance, in Mr. Grose’s Legends, and in the dean and chapter reburying the crown, robes and sceptre of Edward I. There would surely have been as much piety in preserving them in their treasury, as in consigning them again to decay. I did not know that the salvation of robes and crowns depended on receiving Christian burial. At the same time, the chapter transgresses that prince’s will, like all their antecessors, for he ordered his tomb to be opened every year or two years, and receive a new cere-cloth or pall; but they boast now of having inclosed him so substantially that his ashes cannot be violated again.”[122]