The Coronation Chair, Westminster Abbey.

carved with very ancient art by a skilful workman , in which the Kings of Spain of the Scottish nation were wont to sit when inaugurated . This Simon Brok having reached the above island with a great army , reduced it under his dominion , and reigned in it many years . He placed the stone or chair at Themor , the royal residence , a noted place at which his successors were accustomed to

reside . Gathelus , as some say , brought this chair , with other regal matters , with him from Egypt , into Spain ; others relate that Brek , having anchored on the Irish coast , was forced by contrary winds to withdraw his anchor from the surge ; and whilst labouring to that end , a stone iu the form of a chair of marble was hauled up by the anchors of the ship . Receiving this as a presage

of future success and dominion , he was exceedingly joyful , and it was then prophesied that he and his posterity should reign wherever this stone was found . Iu Hollinshed ' s Chronicle there is a long account of this Gathelus , who is there said to have been a Greek , the son of Cecrops , who built the city of Athens . After leaving Greece , Gathelus resided some time in Egypt ,

when he married Scota , the daughter of King Pharaoh ; but being alarmed by the judgments denounced by Moses , who was then in Egypt , he quitted that country , and landed in Spain , where he built a city , which ho called Brigantia . When he sat upon bis marble stone , he gave laws and administered justice to his people . This stone was in fashion like a seat or chair , having

such a fatal destiny , as the Scotch say , following it , that , wherever it should be placed , there should the Scottish men reign and have supreme governance . "Hereof it came to pass , that first in Spain , after in Ireland , the kings which ruled over the Scottish men received the crown upon that chair until the reign of Eobert the First , king of Scotland . " There are several ancient rhymes connected with this ; among them the following : — -

"King Edward with tlie lang shankes from Seotlanci lie fette : Besyde the shryne of Seynt Edward at AVestminster he hitte sette . " The Irish name for this stone was generally the "Fatal Stone ;'' sometimes , however , it was called tho " Stone of Fortune . " Its place , when in Ireland , was the Hill of Tarah ; and for some ages tho kings of that

country were crowned upon it there . Sir J . Ware , in his account of the relic , states that the Irish historians say it was brought by the colony of the Tuath do Danams into their country , where it was regarded as an enchanted stone , and reputed to have a peculiar quality : namely , that when any of the Eoyal Scythian race placed themselves on it to be crownedit made a terrible noise

, resembling thunder ; but if the king elect were a pretender , the stone was silent ; and tradition reports that in the times of heathenism , before the birth of Christ , he only was crowned monarch of Ireland under whom , when placed upon it , the stone " groaned or spoke . " In the reign of Morietach Mac Ere , it was sent to his brother-Fergus , first king of Scotland , who was descended from

the blood-royal of Ireland ; and he had it placed iu Argyle , where it continued until the reign of King Kenneth II , who A . D . 840 having vanquished the Picts , near Scone , enclosed tbe stone in a wooden chair , and deposited it in the monastery then , to serve for the inauguration of the kings of Scotland . According to Pennant , its station , when in Argyleshire , was the castle of

Dunstaffnage , and in his " Tour in Scotland" he has given an engraving of an ivory image , found in the ruins of that castle , which represents a king sitting , as he supposes , in the ancient chair , in whose bottom was the fatal stone . The shape of this chair is very different from that in Westminster Abbey ; and if we may judge rightly from this carving , it was of great antiquity . Bishop Leslie , who wrote his account of Scottish events early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth , states that Kenneth removed the marble chair from Argyle to Scone , and

willed that the future kings should be inaugurated sitting on that chair . Hollinshed narrates the facts of this removal more particularly . "King Kenneth , " he says ,. " having destroyed tho Pictish kingdom , caused the marble , stone ( which Simon Brek sometime brought out of Spaiue into Ireland ) , aud the first Fergus out of Irelaud into Albion , to be brought now forth of Argyle ,.

where , till that time , it had been diligentlie kept , into Gowrie ; which region before apperteined to the Picts ; there to remaine from thenceforth as a sacred tokeu for the establishment of the Scotish kingdome in that countrie . He placed it at Scone upon a raised seat , on a . plot of ground there , because that tho last battel ! which he had with the Picts was fought neare vnto the same

place . " Buchanan , in his History of Scotland , gives an account of the coronation stones which is very similar tothe above ; but says , in addition , that tho kings of Scotland were wont to receive both ' . the regal title and the insignia sitting on that chair , till the days of Edward I . king of England ; and Chalmers asserts that the last of the Scottish kings who was crowned on that seat was

Alexander III . Hardyng , however , whose chronicle was partly composed in Henry VI . 's reign ( and with whom , on this point several ancient historians agree ) , spetdung of John Baliol , affirms that he was crowned —•

" In the minster of Scone , within Scotlad groud , Sytting upon the regal stone full sound , As all the Kynges then used had afore On Sainet Andrewes day , with al joye therfore . " In April , 1296 , Edward I ., having formed a league with Bruce , defeated John Baliol in a great battle near Dunbar . Afterwards Edward , wishing to deprive the

Scottish nation of every vestige of its independence , caused the crown , sceptre , and inauguration stone , with all thepublic jewels , archives , charters , & c , to be conveyed to London , as memorials of his conquest and the subjugation of the Scots . In the wardrobe account of Edward I ., under theheading " Jewels remaining at the End of the Twenty T

seventh Year , of those which were sometime the King of Scotland ' s , found in the Castle of Edinburgh , " mention is made of a large enamelled silver cup , and a great stone on which tho Kings of Scotland were wont to be crowned . It would seem by this that the coronationstone was at any rate for a time deposited in Edinburgh . Most historians , however , agree that Edward carried the

stone from Scone to London . Respecting this , Hemmgford says : — " In the church at the monastery of Scone , near the high altar , there was a very ancient stone , made indeed concave like a rude chair , wherein the future kings were seated as customary in the place of coronation . This stone Edward L , in returning through Scone , commanded to be taken away and carried to London . " "

Kuighton gives similar testimony ; and Walsingham says ; that Edward , in returning by the Abbey at Scone , took from thence the stone which the Kings of Scotland were wont to use for a throne at the coronation , and brought it to AVestminster , and ordered it thenceforth to be made the chair of the officiating priest . Another authority who has evidently gathered his information from the last

named writer , says : — " And as he came homeward hy Skone away , Tlie regal stone of Scotland then he brought And sent it forth to AVestminster for ay To be there in a cheire cleanly wrought , Which then was standying beside the shryne In the cheire of olde tyme made full fyne . "

Matthew of Westminster informs us ( date 1297 ) , that the king coming to Westminster , on the morning of St , Botolpb , offered to the blessed King Edward tbe regalia of the Scottish kingdom , viz ., the throne , the golden sceptre , and the crown . Eapin , the historian , after alluding to the intention of King Edward to unite the two kingdoms , and the removal into England of the Scottish regalia and famous inaugu-