FOR THE LOVE OF CHARLIE: ARTEFACT SERIES -- NO. 4

This was far worse to photograph than yesterday's gold pendant. The wood is old, dry, dark and absorbs light like a sponge. I took hundreds of shots. Himself doesn't like this one because the tag is hidden but at least the cross is a little bit better than a dark stick. It took hours and I hate this pic and all of the others as well.

We move to Scotland for this one.

Some of Himself's ancestor cousins were ardent supporters of the Jacobite cause which was, to cut it short, the return of the English, Scottish and Irish crowns to the Stuarts.

The Old Pretender, son of the deposed James II of England and James VI of Scotland spent a night at their house in 1715 on that particular attempt. His son, Bonnie Prince Charlie preferred more posh digs when he returned in 1745. For all that, one of the ancestors, a man in his 80s, died while pulling on his boots to go and fight for Charlie.

Another became Charlie's physician and traveled everywhere with him. He had to dash off to France when the uprising failed.

Still another was at the Battle of Preston Pans and took off, by himself, after some dragoons. They galloped away but when they turned to look back and saw that he was all alone, they shot him dead.

He was buried where he fell, under an ash tree in Haddingtonshire in September 1745. The story of this zealous chap features in one of Sir Walter Scott's novels.

These are twigs from that ash tree lovingly made into a cross with silver tips. It is 32 cm, 12 inches long.

It wasn't exactly brilliant of them to follow the pretty chap in the wig. If they didn't lose their lives, they lost their shirts.

For the record: Sunshine! The first in weeks. Chandra arrived to gather up all of the soggy leaves and tidy us in general. Himself has to go to the dentist.