The Stone of Scone

[Niven Sinclair <niven@niven.co.uk>]

The Stone which sat under the throne in Westminster Abbey was not the
real Stone of
Destiny.  Edward I knew this.  The Scots knew this so, when
Edward III offered to give it
back at the Treaty of Northampton, they refused to accept it but accepted
the Holy Rood.

Knowing this, it was, therefore, quite surprising to find present day
Scots celebrating the
return of the fake Stone of Scone which was nothing more than the stopper
for the access
to a bottle-necked dungeon.  Such dungeons were almost standard
features in most Scottish Castles.  The two metal rings embedded in
the stone were to facilitate the raising and lowering of the stone.

The true Stone of Destiny is to be found on land owned by a Sinclair
which is within a stone's throw of Scone Palace.  It is NOT at
Rosslyn Chapel as has been suggested.
The vaults of Rosslyn Chapel may, however, contain the Holy Rood which
was brought
back from Durham by Simon Sinclair.

The fake stone is of local red sandstone whilst the Stone of Destiny is
of black basalt.
Its shape and size and composition is well known thanks to the writing of
Walter de
Hemingford who was Edward I's chronicler who attended the Coronation of
John Baliol
at Scone on St Andrew's Day 1292.  The stone is described as
quidem ad modem
rotundae cathedra convectus. It was black, polished and shaped
like a stool which
(because it was too low) was placed within a chair.  It was also
decorated.  Indeed, it
would be difficult to find anything more dissimilar to the fake Stone of
Scone which
Edward I's son, Edward II, took to London to deceive his own people into
believing that he had 'acquired' the sacred stone on which Scottish Kings
were crowned - thus implying that there would be no more coronations in
Scotland because he was the King of Scotland as well as England. 
King Edward was desirous of annihilating everything which represented
or
preserved the independence of Scotland. 

It is a great pity that present day Scots know so little about their own
history otherwise
there might have been less enthusiasm about the 'return' of the fake
stone which was
handed over by Prince Andrew to the Lord Lyon, King of Arms, Sir Malcolm
Innes (whose
mother is a Sinclair) who (whatever his own opinion might be) had no
alternative other than
to accept the 'gift' with as good grace as he could muster.

Robert the Bruce was also crowned on the true Stone of Destiny before it
was hidden.

The stone had been given originally by a Pharoah to his daughter, Scotia,
who was
given in marriage to General Gathelus who had defeated the Hitites with
an army mainly
composed of Macedonians - the warrior people who Alexander 'the Great'
eventually used to
capture all the land between the Mediterranean and the Indus.

The journey of Jacob's pillow from the Middle East to Scotland has
already been described with greater fancy than accuracy.

Niven Sinclair