ROCK WHICH MOSES STRUCK.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 288, 25 November 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

ROCK WHICH MOSES STRUCK.

STORY OF ITS TRAVELS. j {TREAT interest has 1.-ccn aroused in ■ Gnat briiain by a statement made J by Areh-leacon Wilberforce at West- | minster Abbey recently that there i e I good reason to b-lii-ve that the stone j called the Coronation Stone, on which j .all the English Sovereigns from the l time of Edward IL have been crowned, | is the identical rook from which water I flowed v.h<n it was struck !>y Moses.' i The archdeacon said it fell to his lot j during the preparations at the Abbey j for the Coronation to guide to the Coronation stone a well known antiquarian. who had made a special study ' f its history. ‘•He was convinced.” said the arcli- | deacon, “that it was the stone on I " hi- h .Li- rested his head when Jehad the vision of angels nt Bethel, and that from that night it was con.sidet«fl sacred, and carried from place- to place. He believed it was this stonthat Moses struck, and that it was carried liy the Israelites during their 4G years of wandering. ‘•He showed me a big cleft in the back from which ho believed the water | -:-•!■.-■! out. He showed me. also, tw • I much to J iron staples deeply set in this very famous stone, one lat each end. v.bii !i f had never nr.!iccd Lof.-re. by which it was carried He trared the stone to Solomon’s ternj pie, an l from thence, after the destruction or Jerusalem by Titus, to Spain; thence to Ireland ; thence to Scone, in Scotland; and from Scotland iWestminster Abbey.” Since the archdeacon’s statement more interest than formerly has lut ; taken in the stone, but only the from; and sides can lie sc.-n by visitors to til? A* bey, for the top is hidden by th-* s< at o! the Coronation chair, and a r.-d prevents people passing behind th.chair for an inspection of the back. It is a piece of purplish grey rock about 2 ft et long, 16 inches wide, anl 1J inches deep, and the iron staph s 're plainly visible. 'Whatever its carlv history, there is little doubt that kings of Scotland were crowned on it at Scone, and there is no doubt that Edward I. brought it to Westmir.stc-, | and that on it all the Sovereigns of