STONE OF SCONE STOLEN FROM WESTMINSTER

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 December 1950, Page 6

STONE OF SCONE STOLEN FROM WESTMINSTER

Scots Believed Responsible

LONDON, Dec. 25.—Scone Stone, on which Britain’s kings are crowned, was stolen today from Westminster Abbey. The police believe it was seized by Scottish Nationalists, who have threatened in the past to return the stone to Scotland, from where it was taken in 1296. Scotland Yard immediately flashed a call to provincial police headquarters to set up roadblocks on the main routes from England to Scotland. Cars driving north are being stopped and searched. Because of the weight of the stone —about 3501 b. several people must have manhandled it, dragging it through the abbey to a waiting car. The Coronation Throne itself was damaged. It had been dragged several yards from its normal position on the high altar of the abbey, and a big splinter was knocked from one of the legs. DRAGGED FROM ALTAR Damaged woodwork in other parts of the Abbey and deep grazes on the masonry showed that the 1100-year-old stone had been dragged from the altar across the Abbey and out through a door at Poet’s Croner, where Britain's great literary figures are buried. The Scone Stone is kept under the Coronation Chair. It was used for 400 years during the coronation ceremonies of Scottish kings, and was taken

from Scotland to Westminster by King Edward I. An anonymous letter written early this year threatened to damage or i steal the stone unless it was returned ' to Scotland The police then keptl guard for 60 hours, but nothing hap- , pened. When Britain was threatened with a Nazi invasion in 1940, the stone was buried under the Abbey and a chart showing its position was sent to Canada. The loss of the stone was discovered about 6 a.m. today by an Abbey watchman when he was making his last rounds. The Very Rev. Alan Campbell Don, Dean of Westminster, said the thieves smashed a lock on the door at Poet s Corner. “ONE OF LITTLE GAMES?" Asked if there had been other recent attempts to remove the stone, I the Dean said: "Some wild Scotsmen have threatened to do this from | time to time, and one hopes it may ' only be one of their little games. I To Scots It Is “the stone of desI tiny,” and legend has it that it was I the “pillow” on which Jacob m the Bible dreamed his prophetic dreams. - Also, according to legend, the stone i groans when the rightful sovereign ■ sits on it, but remains silent beneath ' a conqueror.

In 1924. Mr. David Kirkwood, a I Scottish M.P. was gi v en leave to bring i a Bill before Parliament, claiming ' that the stone should be returned to - Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, but the I Bill died in its Parliamentary in- ' fancy.