MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS INTEREST COMMEMORATIVE SILVER RING with Henri. L. Darnley engraved to the back of the bezel, with Sterling Information on the original ring taken from the Victoria and Albert Museum where it is kept: This gold signet ring was said to have been found amongst the ruins of Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire in 1820. It was exhibited to the Archaeological Institute, Salisbury in 1849, and had been acquired by the ring collector and aesthete Edmund Waterton by 1857. Waterton formed one of the most important ring collections of the 19th century but fell into financial difficulties in the 1870s and his collection was purchased by the Museum in 1871. When the ring was first published and became widely known, it was said to have been the wedding ring of Mary Queen of Scots and Henry, Lord Darnley. The bezel of the ring is engraved with the initials H and M with a true lover's knot whilst the back of the bezel shows a coat of arms engraved with lion rampant and a crown and the inscription Henry L. Darnley, 1565. The authenticity of the ring's associations was widely accepted until the publication of the Jewellery Gallery Summary Catalogue (V&A, 1982) in which Shirley Bury suggested that the crude nature of the inscription and style of lettering might indicate that it was added at a later date. Nonetheless, the ring's compelling story inspired the production of many silver replicas for sale to the devoted admirers of Mary, Queen of Scots.