Lee Penny
The Lee Penny is an amulet that has healing properties ascribed to it. It is said to have originated in the Orient and came to Scotland during the Crusades. The history of the jewel is linked to the Lee Lockharts clan .
Description and name
It is a triangular carnelian set in a silver groat , a London issue from the time of Edward IV . The amulet is kept in a snuffbox from the time of Maria Theresa . It is named after the Lee Castle on the banks of the Clyde, south of Lanark .
Legend
According to tradition, Sir Simon Lockhart of Lee and Cartland accompanied Lord Douglas in 1320 on the journey to the Holy Land. Douglas never got there and fell in Spain, but Sir Simon Lockhart is said to have made it to the Orient. There he captured an emir. The emir's wife (in other versions of the story: his old mother) had come to the crusader camp to pay the ransom demanded; in the process, the carnelian of their purse had been dropped. Sir Simon noticed this and requested that the gem be kept as part of the ransom. The emir's wife then not only gave him the carnelian, but also confided in him that the stone had to be immersed three times in water, whereupon the water received healing powers.
Soon the Lee Penny was known in Scotland for healing successes in humans and animals.
Miraculous healings
In 1638 the Presbyterian Congregation at Glasgow dealt with the Lee Penny at the instigation of a certain Gavin Hamilton. She advised the Laird of Lee (in Lanarkshire ) to use the stone so as to cause as little nuisance as possible.
Apparently people came from far and wide, from Scotland and Northern England, hoping that Lee Penny would cure them, especially if they were bitten by a rabid dog. The belief in the miraculous powers of carnelian was still unbroken in the early 19th century. The amulet was submerged three times in the water with the help of the chain to which it is attached and this was set in circular motion once (“three dips and a swell”).
reception
Walter Scott dedicated the novel "The Talisman" to Lee Penny.
Web links
literature
- Elizabeth Siberry: The New Crusaders: Images of the Crusades in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries . Routledge, 2016. ISBN 978-1-85928-333-2 . Pp. 42-43.
- Jennifer Westwood, Sophia Kingshill: The Lore of Scotland: A guide to Scottish legends . Random House, 2009. pp. 192-194.
- Walter James Hoffman: Popular Superstitions. In: William Jay Youmans (ed.): Popular Science Monthly Volume 50, New York 1897. pp. 92-100, here pp. 98-99.