A RELIC FOR SCOTLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 219, 10 June 1919, Page 5

A RELIC FOR SCOTLAND

' THE LAST LETTER OF,MARY QUEEN OF;SCOTS. The National Art Collections Fund has placed on loan with the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, pending a decision as to its final destination, the original of tho last letter of Mary Queen of Scots addressed to her brother-in-law, Henry 111, King of Francs, on tho night before her execution at Fotheringay Castle on February 8, 1587. This letter was acquired from tho Morrison Collection,, through Mr. F. Leverton Harris and a body of subscribers, for presentation, through the National Art Collections Fund, to the Scottish nation. The lettej-, which is in a perfect 6tate of preservation, is a beautiful specimen of caligraphy as well as a document of the first historical, importance. In the letter Mary informs her brother that, having passed nearly' twenty veafs in the captivity of Queen Elizar both, she has at last been condemned' to death and has been ordered to be executed on the morrow as a criminal, at 8 o'clock in the morning. She etates that ■it Is for the Catholic religion that sho is condemned to die, and commends her son to Henry's care, and also her heartbroken servants. She further requests him to found a Dead Mass, and signs the letter, "at two hours after midnight, your most loving and very good sister, Jlari R."