The Washington herald., 1911-02-07

| iC,pyriStt. 1911. by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate
A very important adjunct TO the corona
| ton, though one that will not be seen
| by any of the thousands who will thronG
Westminster Abbey on the all-eventful
! day next June. is the Scottish stone OF
| destiny" that for more than six hundred
years has rested under the historic old
coronation chair in which King George
| will sit while the crown of Great Britain
| is placed upon his head. AS matter OF
| fact. that chair was designed TO hold the
stone. which rests between the seat and
the ground, on a kind OF middle frame or
plinth.
The legends that surround that stone
are many and interesting. though it must
| be admitted that they lose something by
the emphatic declaration OF Sir Archibald
Geikie. who says:
LAS a geologist, I would say that the
stone almost certainly is of Scottish orr
gin, that it has been quarried out Of one
of the sandstone districts between the
coast Of Argyle and the mouths Of the
Tay or Forth, but that there is no clew
in the stone itself to fix precisely its
original source
the stone is the one to the effect that it
is the same stone upon which Jacob pill
lowed his head on the plain of Luz and
dreamed of the angel ascending and de-
scending from the ladder that reached
from earth to heaven. According to this
story, the stone in the course Of time
found it's way to Jerusalem and from
there to Greece and later in turn to
Egypt and Spain. where it came into the
possession of Cecrops, who built Athens
and married Scotia the daughter of
Pharaoh. From Spain the stone is said to
have travelled to Ireland. where it served
as a crownins stone for the kings Of the
sister isle on the summit of the famous
hill of Tara.
According to the same account. one of
the most famous kings to be crowned
upon it was Simon Brech. who lived as
early as 700 r G.. Despite the teSti-
mony of so eminent an authority as
Sir Archibald Geikie. there would seem
to be plenty Of evidence that the stone
originally did reach Scotland by way Of
Ireland though the Irish hotly deny that
it has aEy connection with the old corona
ton stone Of Tara, which. they assert.
still remains buried on the top of the hill.
The first Scottish king to be crowned
upon this stone seems to have been King
Kenneth. who placed it in the Abbey of
Scone. in Perthshire, about the year $50.
and there it is said the stone remained
over 400 years, when in one Of his sue
cessful forays across the border Edward
I captu-ed and brought it in triumph to
Westminster Abbey. where it has rested
ever since upon the oaken coronation
chair
Indeed. II has left Westminster Abbey
only on ono single occasion, and that was
when Oliver Cromwell was installed as
Lord Protector of England at westmin-
ster Hall, and the chair was taken over
to serve for that dignity.
Since Edward II every British sover-
eign. with the solitary exception of Mary
I, has been crowned in this chair with
the "stone Of destiny" beneath 1t. This
name. by the way, Is given to 1t on ac-
count Of the couplet that Kenneth caused
to be engraved upon 1t and traces OF
which may yet be seen. rough trans
lation is as follows:
II fate don't fail. vhere'1 you find this stnoe.
That country mua Scot foe monarch own.
OF course this is not the only coronation
stone to be found in England. There Is.
for instance. .he historicA old relic at
Kingston-on-T Thames, uponswhich at least
seven and perhaps more Saxon kings were
crowned. It Is in an excellent state OF
preservation to-day. despite the fact that
1t IL quite exposed to tho ravages OF tho
weather.
Then there also arc the famous blue
STONES" q otonshsneA which are rspoeed