ROMANCE OF A HEART

Otago Witness, Issue 4029, 2 June 1931, Page 70

ROMANCE OF A HEART

Interest in the romantic story of the heart of Montrose—surely a romance of history if ever there was one—has been reawakened by the reports in the newspapers that the heart of the “ Great Marquis ” has been recovered after having been lost for almost 140 years. So far, no particulars have been given as to where and how it has been found, but Captain Henry Stuart WheatlyCrowe, president of the Royal Martyr Church Union, into whose hands the precious relic has been placed, states that from the evidence vouchsafed him lie has no doubt but that it is the long-lost heart. The statements already published are to the effect that, according to documentary evidence, the embalmed heart was brought back from France at the time of the French Revolution by the direct ancestor of the late Christopher Perkins, J.P., and since that date the heart has been in the possession of that family, or in that of Mr Johnston Bird. It is said also that the late Mr Ronald Campbell-Johnston informed a relative that his ancestor always carried the heart about with him in a silver casket ■wherever he went. This ancestor was travelling in France at the date of the Revolution, and the heart was supposed to have been hidden in haste down a well at Calais. These statements, however, contradict one another. The first—that the embalmed heart was brought back from France at the time of the Revolution—does not tally with the second—that the heart was hidden down a well at Calais. Some one is bound to be wrong, and the first statement' is the incorrect one. The heart never left France; it was lost at Boulogne—not Calais, as is stated above —and there is authentic evidence still extant which proves the truth of this. It is worth while relating the whole romantic story of the heart of Montrose —which, by the way, furnishes another proof of the fact that “ Truth is stranger than fiction ’’—based on authentic documents to be found in Mark Napier’s ‘‘ Life and Times of Montrose.”

After the execution of Montrose, which took place in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh on May 21, 1650, the body, after being dismembered and the limbs sent to Glasgow, Perth, Stirling, and Aberdeen, was ignominiously thrown into a hole in the Burghmuir. Two nights later, however, “ some adventurous spirits ” —acting, most likely, on the instructions of his kinswoman, Lady Napier, of Merchiston—reopened the grave and removed the heart of the Marquis, which they brought to her ladyship wrapped in fine linen. At considerable risk to herself she entrusted the heart to Mr James Callender—reputed to be the most skilful surgeon of the day in Edinburgh—who “ embalmed it in the costliest manner,” and it was then placed by Lady Napier in a delicate gold filagree box (a gift by a Doge of Venice to her famous ancestor, John Napier, the inventor of logarithims), and this in turn was placed in a steel case made out of the Marquis’s sword, and kept in a silver urn. Of the urn, history makes no further mention, but the steel case and the gold box containing the heart were sent by Lady Napier to the second Marquis of* Montrose, son of the “ Great Marquis,” who was then in exile in Holland.

There they disappeared, but some time later they came into the possession of the fifth Lord Napier, who received them from a Guelderland gentleman, a collector of curiosities, into whose possession they had come. By Lord Napier they were presented to his daughter, Mrs Johnston, the wife of a Madras civil servant. On her way to India with her husband and son (afterwards notable as Sir Alexander Johnston, the reorganiser of the Government of Ceylon) the Indiaman they were aboard was attacked off the Cape Verde Islands by a frigate belonging to the squadron of the French Admiral, Suffren; and during the encounter Mrs Johnston remained on deck beside her husband, who was assisting in the defence of the vessel. In her hand she held a bag which contained many of her most valued possessions, among which was the box with the heart. The bag was carried away by a splinter, and dashed on the deck with so much violence that the delicate gold box was broken, though the steel case resisted the shock.

The Indiaman having put up a stout resistance the frigate was recalled and the Johnstons continued their voyage to India, where, at Madura, a native goldsmith made another box ns like the missing one as possible. This was placed in the steel case and the whole enclosed in a silver urn, upon which was engraved in Tamil and Telugu, two languages, of Southern India, a brief abstract of Montrose’s history. For long the urn stood on a table in Mr Johneton’s house, known as the Tunkum, in Madura, and, from the care which was taken of it, a legend grew up among the natives that it was a talisman, the possession of which would ensure the owner safety in battle. Because of this belief it was stolen and sold to a Polygar (or head man) of the district, who had no idea whence it came or of its history. As it happened, however, Mr Johneton’s son, afterwards the Sir Alexander already mentioned, went to stay with the Polygar and bccahie very friendly with him. One day while they were out hunting together Mr Johnston w'-s

attacked by a wild hog, and, after a severe struggle, succeeded in killing it with the help of the Polygar. The latter was so struck by the coolness and bravery of Mr Johnston on this occasion that he asked in what manner he could show his respect and regard for him, whereupon Mr Johnston asked that the urn be returned to him, telling the Polygar its history. His wish was granted, the Polygar remarking that one brave man should always respect the wishes of another brave man, despite differences of race and religion; and thus the urn with the heart came once again into the possession of the Johnstons, with whom it remained during the remainder of their stay in India. On their return home in 1792 they travelled through France, where they were detained at Boifiogne. The French Revolution was then breaking out, and by a decree of the Parliament, no bullion was allowed to be taken out of the country. The Johnstons, therefore, were compelled to leave behind their plate and jewellery, while the urn was left in charge of an Englishwoman named Knowles. A little afterwards she died, and, though the Johnstons received from the French Government later the value of the plate and jewellery left behind, i nothing more was ever heard of the urn I with the heart —until recently it came into the possession of Captain WheatlyCrowe.

Such is the real history of the heart up to the time of its disappearance; where it has been hidden all the intervening years has not yet been- divulged, but, when the story is made public, no doubt another interesting episode in a story already full of interest and romance will be revealed.

It may be added that there were some curious and pathetic circumstances connected with the death of the Polygar, which, with the story of the heart,‘Sir Walter Scott intended to have worked up into a romance. Unfortunately he died ere he could put his intention into execution, and so the world is the poorer to-day.—W. G., in the Glasgow Weekly Herald.