Our rods would not move at all the candles and torches also, but one, were extinguished, or burned very dimly. The labourers digged at least six feet deep, and then we met with a coffin but which, in regard it was not heavy, we did not open, which we afterwards much repented.įrom the cloisters we went into the abbey church, where upon a sudden (there being no wind when we began), so fierce and so high, so blustering and loud a wind did rise, that we nearly believed the west end of the church would have fallen upon us. Upon the west end of the cloisters the rods turned one over another, an argument that the treasure was there. ![]() We played the hazel-rods round about the cloisters. One winter's night, Davy Ramsay, with several gentlemen, myself, and Scott, entered the cloisters. I was desired to join with him, unto which I consented. One of the participants described the event: Ramsay actually got permission for his exploration of the abbey from Dean Witham (who was also Bishop of Lincoln at the time.)The supernatural efforts were aided by the use of 'Mosaical' (divining) rods, employed by a person named John Scott. The astrologer William Lilly (1602-1681), who seems to have been a kindred spirit, relates in his posthumously published Life and Times (1715) that Ramsay and others conducted an investigation in Westminster Abbey in 1634, using a diving rod to search for concealed treasure. Between 16 David obtained eight patents for various inventions related to ploughing soil, fertilising the earth, raising water by fire, refining metals, propelling ships, plus other things.Įven more fascinating is his connection with the darker sciences. His interests in science apparently spread far and wide. John Smith's book Old Scottish Clockmakers (1921) confirms that the London Ramsay was a Dundonian.ĭavid Ramsay was royal clockmaker to kings James I and Charles I in succession and was also page of the bedchamber and groom of the privy chamber, and so a man of some standing in court circles as well as a 'mere' master craftsman. Richard Bissell Prosser's article in the Dictionary of National Biography perpetuates the spurious Dalhousie connection but contains much of interest. More likely by far is that this Scottish craftsman was a scion of the family who had connections in Dundee and Auchterhouse. ![]() The Dalkieth connection was invented by Scot to link the character with the eminent Ramsays of Dalhousie. The royal clockmaker Ramsay was a real figure, A Scot resident in London, though he was almost certainly not from Dalkeith.
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