The history and poetry of finger-rings

by Charles Edwards

Where’er shall direct me the shade of Montrose!

Your Grace, in short space, shall hear tidings of me:

Or that low lies the bonnet of Bonny Dundee.

Come, fill up my cup; come, fill up my can;

Come, saddle the horses and call up the men;

Come, open your gates and let me gae free,

For it’s up with the bonnets of Bonny Dundee.”[296]

All of this is gone; low lies Bonny Dundee; and the untruth of what is called history is all we have of him. There was a ring of which a description and an engraving remain containing some of Lord Dundee’s hair, with the letters V. D. surmounted by a coronet worked upon it in gold; and on the inside of the ring are engraved a skull and this poesy:

“Great Dundee, for God and me. J. Rex.”