The Coronation Chair. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 56

The Coronation Chair. TO THE EDITOR.

bn, — The wood of the Coronation chair is very liard and f-olicl. The back and sides wtie Jurmerly paiiited in \anoua colours and gilt. The Coronation stone is a kind ot rough-looking sandstone, measuring 26in in length, 162 mm breadth, and lO^in in thickness. It is supposed to have been brought from Ireland to Scotland by Fergus, the first King of the latter country, hit coronation upon it taking place 'onie 330 years before Christ. It is certain that from a \e-ry early period it was used in the coronation of the. Scottish kings at Dunstaff nago and Scone. It was carried to Scone by Kenneth JI when he united the territories of the Picts and tho Scots in the ninth centuiy, where it remained till the thirteenth. Upon this sacrcxl stone all the kings of Scotland were ciowned for more than a thousand years. Its being hard anJ told might very well tint the brawny posterior of a northern monarch, but modern luxury lias placed it a foot below the to make way for the vchet cushion. I hi.s curious stone is called by some writers tho Royal Tin one of Scotland. But it is without fotm or lomehucsi, being jagged m eve-ry direction, and of a darkish ( olour, aa ociy stone mu-t be which has lain 500 ycaii in the snioke of London. It weigh, about lewt. and l- much like the .-tonte we often see m a locky field The famous •-tone of Scone, though now lenioved to Westminster and enclosed m a chaii of wood, on which the kings of Kngland ancl Scotland are still downed, is well known to ha\c been an ancient ttone c 4 -acred and mo-t solemn designation long before it v\as placed in S< one It i- clear iiwit befciie tl.e time of Kenneth — that i-, before the year 834, it had been placed -imply and plainly, as a. stone of great lmpcut and of great notoriety, in AigylUhiie, and <>n account of a reverence paid to it w.'- removed by Kenneth. On New Yeai'.s Ddy, 1651, the Coionation of Charles 11 took place at Scone. It was performed in tl . ancient manner, in wlm h so many kmgi renowned m legend and hi<-t<>iy had been crowned. Charles II was obliged to a wear to the Pre c bvterian dogma-. The High ('oii-t.tb!e liaiidi d Jinn tlie -word, wuli the rec|uiremcnt that he >houkl u-e it foi the defence of tin tine u-ligion, as it was now acknowledged m the kingdom. (Kir the ciown a jjiayer v\a^ fir-t offered ip tlut L ir.iglit 1. ]tuiricd fioin the tra'.j-gie--ioii- <J tlm'-e v\ln, had foimcrly worn it. and tii'n the Marrjui- of Argy'.e placed il on tin' T^'iiig'- he.ul Thii 1 - v\.i- Charles II ciowned m Sforlancl. aiid many a <-pei t.itoi chclaied that Ik had n^rr «-een itcipi.tl in ttoi gcoii-ne-.--. Anointed with tlie liolv 0,1. as Samuel li.id onro aiiointed I).i\id -innifjing thiH he cle lived his pouer fieim G.xl, tin- art wr\- r< gaided as the . !.n,a\ <t thi iTlde <f tin- l'j fsbyteridtl 'mi — 1 in <t( SCO.NE. 1 Ji'i r(',n, Api ll *.

I A ])',' of LfnMo w.t- emce e.nnid all over the wen 1«' foi two vrars by a sea captain. It cio^-rd tl.e equatoi seven times, and on Ijp lhg open"d, the content- were found to bo perfect I.rmro will keep good for &ny time in any t'nratf Lenvo is the genuine Lie-