Tale of the Lee Penny Talisman
Sir Walter Scott used the tale of the Lee Penny's acquisition as a basis for his novel, The Talisman.
Sir Walter Scott is the most famous Scottish author. He came to know of the Lee Penny when his daughter married a decendent of Sir Symon Lockard.
The story of the acquisition of the Lee Penny began when Sir Symon, during the course of the crusade, captured a Moorish amir of considerable wealth and consequence. As the story goes, the aged mother of the amir came to the Christian camp to pay a ransom for her son. She quickly agreed to terms with Sir Symon, but as she was paying out the gold from her purse a strange looking amulet fell onto the table which she quickly scrambled to replace. Sir Symon, attributing great value to this amulet as a result of the haste with which the old mother recovered it, quickly added the amulet to the price of the ransom.
Not only did the woman consent to this new condition, but she also explained how the amulet was to be used as a remedy against bleeding, fever, the bites of mad dogs, and the sicknesses of horses and cattle. This amulet was a dull, heart shaped stone, deep red in color, which was later set into a silver coin which has been identified as a fourpenny piece of the reign of Edward IV, and became known as the Lee Penny.
The coin is kept in a gold snuffbox which was a gift from Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria,to her general, Count James Lockhart. Such was the belief in the powers of the amulet, that a decendent of Sir Symon, Sir James Lockhart of the Lee, was charged with sorcery, an offense that could carry the death penalty. After examining the accused the Synod of the Church of Scotland dismissed the case, because
"The custom is only to cast the stone in some water and the deseasit cattle thereof to drink and the same is done without using any words such as charmers use in their unlawful practices and considering that in nature there are many things seem to work strange effects whereof no human wit can give reason it having pleast God to give the stones and herbs a special virtue for healing of many infirmities in man and beast."
To read Sir Walter Scott's tale of the Lee Penny Talisman, download the full text from Project Guttenberg's web site at http://www.gutenberg.net.