aissie ring sett with a table diamond;

A ryng sett all over with diamondis, made in fashion of a lizard,
120 l.;

A ring set with 9 diamonds, and opening on the head with the King's
picture in that.

[Footnote 19: William Hone, "Every-Day Book", London, 1838, vol. ii,
cols. 749, 750.]

Heriot also lists a ring delivered about 1607 to Margaret Hartsyde,
one of the royal household, describing it as "sett all about with
diamondis, and a table diamond on the head"; that is, in the bezel. He
states that he had been given to understand that this was by direction
of Her Majesty. His precaution in making this note appears to have
been fully justified, for this Margaret Hartsyde was tried in
Edinburgh, May 31, 1608, on the charge of having purloined a pearl
belonging to the queen and valued at L110. Her excuse was that she had
taken this and other pearls to adorn dolls for the amusement of the
royal children, and that she did not expect the queen would ask for
them. As, however, it was brought out in the trial that she had
cleverly disguised some of the pearls she had taken, and had offered
to sell them to the queen, she was condemned to imprisonment in
Blackness Castle until the payment of a fine of L400, and to
confinement in Orkney during the remainder of her life. Eleven years
later, however, the king's advocate "produced a letter of
rehabilitation and restitution of Margaret Hartsyde to her fame".[20]

[Footnote 20: "Every-Day Book", _loc. cit_.]

In Shakespeare's day the "goldsmiths" were also jewellers and gem
dealers, and often money-lenders as well. The settings of the finest
precious stones were at that time generally of gold, rarely of silver.
Platinum, the metal that now enjoys the greatest furore for diamond
settings, was then unknown in Europe; it was first brought to Europe
in 1735, from South America, having been found in the alluvial
deposits of the river Pinto, in the district of Choco, now forming
part of the United States of Colombia. The Spaniards had named it
_platina_, from its resemblance to _plata_, silver. The
chief source in our time is Russia, the richest deposits being those
discovered in 1825, on the Iss, a tributary of the Tura, in the Urals.
Other valuable deposits are in the district of Nizhni-Tagilsk.
Platinum also occurs in Brazil, California, and British Columbia,
associated with gold, as well as in Borneo, New South Wales,
Australia, and in New Zealand. Its use in gem-mountings began