HEART OF MONTROSE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 110, 12 May 1931, Page 8

HEART OF MONTROSE

STORY OF LOST RELIC. AN ALLEGED DISCOVERY. Interest may be revived in an historic controversy that has raged around the romantic figure of James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, one of the greatest soldiers of the reign of Charles I. on the side of the Crown. Attention has been again drawn to the subject by a statement made by Captain Henry Stuart Wheatly-Crowe, president of the Royal Martyr Church Union and Governor-General of the Royal Stuart Society. There has been entrusted to Captain Wheatly-Crowe’s care “and for final identification,” the embalmed heart of the great Marquis, or, as he puts it: “which is alleged to be the heart of Montrose.” “I must say,” says Captain Wheatly-Crowe, “that the evidence I have with it strongly points to it being the lost heart. Briefly, it* history is this: “After the execution of Montrose at Edinburgh in 1649-50, his heart was embalmed and given into the custody of the Campbell-Johnston family. The documentary information that has now been given to me states that this embalmed heart was brought back from France at the time of the French Revolution by a direct ancestor of the late Christopher Perkins, of Swansea. The heart had been in the possession of that family—or in the possession of Mr. Johnson Bird—ever since that date. “I am most anxious 10 appeal 0 anyone who may be able to assist in the definite identification of this relic, and who may have, knowledge of fur ther documentary evidence which may help to verify the information that I have in my possession-”