Advice from an elder at Queen Margaret's inauguration ceremony: keep an eye on the local authority. Edinburgh University still mourns the loss of its original 1640 silver mace, reportedly stolen on October 29, 1787. Suspicion fell on a member of Edinburgh Town Council. Edinburgh's principal, Timothy O'Shea, said the fact that the council later donated a vastly inferior and smaller mace fuelled the view that it "knew something".