When I got engaged 66 years ago, my husband’s grandmother gave me a Douglas Heart: a multi-faceted, heart-shaped amethyst about the size of a large walnut, with a pearl-studded gold crown on top, to be worn as a necklace on a gold chain. She considered it to be a suitable present for the fiancée of someone called Douglas. It’s a treasured possession and I wear it as often as possible, but it wasn’t until about 13 years ago, when I was commissioned to write an article about Drumlanrig Castle, that I realised what an incredibly serendipitous gift it was.
Somewhat reluctantly, because I
