THE CORONATION CHAIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8082, 24 September 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE CORONATION CHAIR.

The following letter appears in Saturday's Times : —As a perfervid Scot, proud in the belief that the ancient prophecy connected with the coronation stone is being fulfilled in our day and before our eyes in the persons of Her Most Gracious Majesty, the descendant of our ancient Scottish kings, and of the many eminent Scotsmen and descendants of Scotsmen who hold high office and bear rule, not only in these kingdoms, but in the colonies and in India, permit me to draw your attention to the statement you make in the Times of Friday that the Sovereigns or England from Edward the Confessor downwards had been crowned on that stone, and to that made by one of your contemporaries some days previously, that" the famous coronation chair was made by command of the Confessor to enclose the stone of Scone."

Neither statement is correct. The stone was brought by Edward I. from Scone " quhar " according to Blind Harry

" Kings was cround auchthundyryer and mar," and Edward 11. would appear to have been the first English monarch crowned on it. A passage in " Blind Harry " seems to show that Edward I, was crowned on the stone at Scone, but I think it refers to Balliol. It is as follows :—

"For Ihon tlie Babyonns to Muaroas than he send, " And putt hym doune for enir of this Kynrik, " Than Ecluuards self was ciilit a roy full ryk. " The croune he tuk upon that sammyne atana " At Gadulos senn with his sons fra Spine, " Quhen Iber Scot fyrst in till irland come."

The chair, according to Dean Stanley, was made by King Edward I. to contain the stone, and was originally intended to be made of bronze, but was ultimately made of oak. Possibly the mistakes may have arisen from the fact that the chair in which it is encased is sometimes called King Edward's chair, and sometimes St Edward's chair. Stanley tells us that King Edward's chair is expressly mentioned in the coronation of Mary, while in the office for the " Benedicton and Coronation of Kings " given in Palmer's " Origines Liturgies," I find " The King sitting down in St. Edward's chair; the Archbishop reverently putteth the crown upon the King's head. " With regard to the prophecy, " Wintoun," in his "Cronykill" of Scotland, gives it and the translation thus :—

" Now will I tli3 ward rehers, " As I fynd oif that stane in wers : "Nifallfct fatum, Scoti, quocunque locntum, " Inventeiu lapiden, ragnare tenontur ibiden. " Botgjff wercys falyhani be, "Quhare evyr that itano yhe sefjye se, " Til are sail the Hcottis be regnaud. " And lorddys ha oure all the laud."

Little did Edward think of the Inestim able blessings he was laying up in store for the people over whom he ruled, and of their heathen contemporaries, when he took away that old stone and

" Gert it set In Lundyn be " Yours faithfully, John Donaldson. Tower House, Chiswick, June 23.