Two decade-rings of the fifteenth century were also exhibited at the Norwich meeting, bearing the monogram I.H.S. one found in Norwich Castle, and the other at Heigham.
A gold ring with ten knobs, was found in 1846, at Denbigh, in pulling down an old house. Its weight is a quarter of an ounce. A similar ring of base metal, discovered in a tomb in York Minster, is preserved in the treasury of that church; and another example, in silver, of precisely similar form, was found in Whitby Abbey, Yorkshire.
Mr. Edward Hoare, of Cork, writing to the editor of the ‘Archæological Journal,’ observes that, as far as he has been able to obtain information about decade-rings, they were worn by some classes of religious during the hours of repose, so that on awaking during the night they might repeat a certain number of prayers, marking them by the beads or knobs of the rings. If worn on any finger except the thumb, at other periods of time than those of repose, it must have been as a sort of penance, and perhaps these rings were sometimes so used. The addition of a twelfth boss marked the repetition of a creed.
Silver Decade-ring.
(In the possession of E. Hoare, Esq.)
The following illustration is from the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ (1792), of a ring found near Croydon, concerning which a correspondent of that work wrote that he remembered a similar ring in the possession of a man advanced in years, who had passed his youth at sea. ‘The ring,’ he said, ‘was a dicket (a corruption of “Decade”), to be placed, successively, on each of the fingers, and turned with the thumb; the cross and larger boss for the Paternoster; the ten smaller ones for Ave Maria, and that he used to say his prayers with it on board ship without being noticed by the sailors, in the hurry and confusion of a man of war.’
Decade-ring, found near Croydon.
In the rich collection of E. Hoare, Esq., is a curious decade signet-ring, of which the following is a representation from the ‘Archæological Journal’ (vol. ii. p. 198). It was discovered near Cork in 1844, and is thus described: ‘The hoop is composed of nine knobs or bosses, which may have served instead of beads in numbering prayers, whilst the central portion which forms the signet supplied the place of the gaùde.’ Some persons (as Mr. Hoare remarked) have considered this ring as very ancient; Mr. Lindsay supposed it to have been of earlier date than the ninth century, regarding the device as representing an arm, issuing from the clouds, holding a cross with a crown, or an ecclesiastical cap, beneath it. Sir William Betham expressed the following opinion respecting this relic: ‘There can be little doubt but your ring is a decade ring, as there are ten knobs or balls about it. The globe surmounted by a cross is a Christian emblem of sovereignty; the ring and cross, of a bishop; the cap looks like a crown, and, only that the ring is too old, it might be considered the ciulid or barred crown of a sovereign prince. It certainly is of considerable antiquity, and Mr. Lindsay is not far out in his estimation.’
| Decade signet-ring. | Decade-ring. |