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herself of the custom of the annual renewal of the purse, " caused the purse, with its decorations, to be put as embroidery on a large piece of rich crimson velvet, corres ponding to the height of one of the state rooms at Wimple. These purses, twenty in number, complete the hangings of the room, and the curtains of a bed, singularly mag nificent."



Charles II. had four Great Seals. None of them is shown here, but a point of in-

of the Lord Chancellor's house, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Within six weeks Sadler was hanged at Tyburn for this theft. James II. 's only Great Seal was dropped into the Thames by the King when he heard of the successful landing made by the Prince of Orange at Torbay. James drowned his seal, thinking, perhaps, as Lord Campbell says, that " he had sunk with it for ever the fortunes of the Prince of Orange." But the Revolution made steady progress, despite

No. u. Second Seal of Oliver Cromwell.

Period of use 1657 to 1659.

terest about his fourth seal is that it was nearly stolen from Lord Nottingham, who took the seal to bed with him. " About one in the morning" (of February 7, 1677), says Wood, " the Lord Chancellor Finch' his mace was stolen out of his house in Queen Street. The seal laid under his pillow, so the thief missed it." The purse, however, was stolen with the mace, and the thief, Thomas Sadler, made a mock procession with these in the neighborhood

Diameter 5.6 inches.

Reverse.

the loss of the seal; and a few days after its loss a fisherman, off Lambeth, drew up in his net the Great Seal of King James, which was handed over to King William. William and Mary had one Great Seal (see No. 18), and the legend on it makes no reference to Scotland : they are de scribed as " King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland," etc. With regard to this omission, Wyon points out that the seal was in use by March II, 1689, and