THE CROWNING OF THE KING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7434, 21 June 1902, Page 4

THE CROWNING OF THE KING.

«. THE CHAIII AND THE STONE. a In Westminster Abbey, against the altar screen, stand two ancient wooden chairs of Gothic design, which, except for their an- i tiquity and apparent discomfort^ would hardly command interest. But these arethe Coronation chairs, famous in our his- j tory, being the King's and Queen's chairs i used at the Coronation. The Queen's^ chair is not of much interest, being comparatively modern, for it was made for the j Coronation of Mary the Second. It is ' the King's chair which is so interesting, not the chair in itself, but for the famous Coronation Stone, or " Stone of Destiny," I which is placed on a shelf just under the seat. The chair itself is of oak, and is said to date from Edward I. The piece of stone known as the Coronation Stone was brought from Scone, the" ancient crown-ing-plaice of, the old Kings of Scotland, and has a most interesting authentic history, as well as a marvellous legendary one. This famous stone is' in colour a whiteygrey, and is of a sandy granular formation, consisting principally of quartz, but. with it is an intermixture of. f elspar, mica and hornblende. It measures in inches 26 x 16| X' 10£. While the English were conquering Britain a body of Scots from Ireland landed on the west coast of Caledonia, about 500 A.D., and set up a little kingdom there, their chief fortress being near the modern Dumbarton, and went on fighting with the Picts till about 836, when, their Royal families having intermarried, Kenneth MacAlpin became the heir to both crowns, from which time the kingdom of Picts and Scots began to be called Scotland, and all its people Scots. At some unknown time during the period when the Scots were effecting a footing in Caledonia ■ was* brought over from Tara, where the ancient ard-rigs, or over-kings, of Ireland 1 weTe crowned, a storie wfgeh. was said, to form the Coronation . seat of these ancient 1 kings. Ab the Coronation' of Kenneth MacAlpin as King of tho Picts and Scots I this holy stone would stem to have been removed to Scone, the ancient Pictish capital, and there remained till Edward I. carried . it off, together with the Cross of t St Margaret, to Westminster, in 1297, where the stone was set into a chair for • the mass priest at the High Altar, and the Scottish crown,, sceptre and St Margaret's [ Cross were laid at the shrine of St Edward i t^e Confessor. Presently this chair, with i the stone under it, became used for the [ King's Coronation, butythe date of its being i first so, used is unknown. ? In W€*tminster it has remained till this I day, and it will -be used for the Coronation ( of King Edward VII. when that ceremony i takes place. I '-So far, for the authentic and- semi-autfoen-i tic history of this famous stone. But It • A has a legendary history^ which goes hack

to the patriarchal ages. From) Scotland it can- be fairly traced bo Ireland, to whiclhi island it is said to have been earned from' Spain by Siniom Brek, the scrii of a Scottish or Milesian king, whom hds father hadi sent with an army to conquer Erin. The story of how. it came to Spain is still more ! marvellous, for, according to legend, ib was taken from Solomon's Temple at Jeirusalemi amd carried to Spain by Jeremiah the prophet, who also took with him a dauglhter of the Jewish king, who eventually maimed the Over-King of the Milesians. Tracing the ■ legend further ba«k, we are told that this holy stone was the very ston& that the Patriarch Jacob used for a pillow at the* place which he afterwards named Bethel— the House of God — in ocannnemicration of the dream .or vision whioh came to. him andl comforted him by assuring ban, of tho favour and protection of Yahweh or Jehovah, and the mighty destiny of his seed. _ * According to an Irish legend, Jeremiah himself is said to have oome over to Ireland, and to have performed ithe marriage ceremony of bis Royal ward with the Milesian King of the famous hill of Tarn*. A much less romantic legend states tha stone to have, been hauled up out of the. sea, in the form of an already-constructad chair, by the sailors of Simon- Brek himself. It* is of inferos** thait the Me Queen Victoria firmly believed in the'legend -above narrated, and possessed'a genealogy of herself tracing her descent through, this Jewish Princess to King Daw-id. And there airei many otihens: who believe in the truiilhi of this "legend, for only a few years Q(gK> a Welsh clergyman of 'an antiquarian tuna of mind constructed a genealogy of Queen Victoria showing her descent froimi the Royal House of Judah', and received a Warm letter of thanks from the Queen's private secretary, together with the informationi that Her Majesty was quite oiware of suchdescent, and had for many years possessed a -copy of a similar genealogy. It may be said, on the other 'hand:, thfiU the present Bishop of Oxford, on® ot our .most learned antiquarians, when asregiUS professor of history hie was lecturing ait Oxford on the early history of Ireland*, Scotland and Wales, frequently made mention of tbe Jewish-Milesian legend ; but he was, wont to treat it purely as a legend, picturesque, but wholly without foundation.