Kohinoor: The Story of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond

by William Dalrymple

Reaching home ‘with his heart in his mouth’, John Lawrence sent for his old bearer and said to him, ‘Have you got a small box which was in my waistcoat pocket sometime ago?’ ‘Yes, Sahib,’ the man replied. ‘I found it and put it in one of your boxes.’ ‘Bring it here,’ said the sahib. Upon this, the old servant went to a battered tin container and produced the little box from it. ‘Open it,’ said John Lawrence, ‘and see what is inside.’19 John watched as the baffled bearer held up the Koh-i-Noor. ‘There is nothing here Sahib,’ he said, ‘but a bit of glass!’20 John Lawrence dined out on that story, although many of his contemporaries poured scorn on it. Lena Login, who usually kept controversial opinions to herself, scoffed at the idea that a man’s waistcoat pocket could ever have held such a mighty gem. Whether the story of the lost Koh-i-Noor was true or not, it added another colourful facet to the diamond’s already colourful legend.