WESTMINSTER ABBEY, ANCIENT CORONATION CHAIR,

AND PROPHETIC STONE.

NEAR St. Edward's Shrine at Westminister, stands that celebrated object of popular curiosity, the old CoRONATION CHAIR ; in which the golden diadem has been placed upon the brows of all our sovereigns from the time of Edward II. Yet it is not the Chuir alone (although in itself a work of much interest, when attentively examined), but the far-famed "PROPHETIC," or "FATAL STONE," inclosed within the frame-work, that constitutes the great focus of attraction to the Historian and the Antiquary.

Tradition has identified this Stone with that on which the Patriarch Jacob reposed his head when he saw the Vision of the ladder reaching to Heaven, with the Angels of God ascending and descending, in the plain of Luz. Its known history, however, carries it back to a period so remote, that this legend was scarcely necessary to procure for it respect and veneration; and whether it were originally an Egyptian or a Celtic monument, it furnishes a very remarkable proof of the wide diffusion of a most ancient practice observed in the inauguration of Kings; namely, by placing them either upon, or near to, an elevated stone, at the moment of investing them with the plenitude of regal power. This custom had its origin in the East, where it spread extensively, and is alluded to in many

passages of the Old Testament, and it certainly became general among the Celtic and Scandinavian nations.*

The fullest account of this Stone given by any single writer, is that by Fordun, who, in his "Scoto Chronicon," which was composed in the reign of Edward III., has devoted an entire chapter to its early history; the substance of his statement is as follows.

"There was a certain King of Spain, of the Scottish race, called Milo, having many sons; one, however, named Simon Brek, he loved above all the others, although he was neither the elder nor the heir. His father, therefore, sent him to Ireland with an army, and gave him a marble Chair, 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, from which cause it was carefully brought into his region, as if it were an anchor. This Simon having reached the above island with a great army, reduced it under his dominion,

* The connecting the Prophetic Stone with the vision of Jacob was, most probably, an invention of the Monks of Westminster; or the most ancient document in which it was thus described, was a Tablet, formerly suspended above the Chair in St. Ed ward's Chapel. Camden, who himself uses the phrase "Saxo Jacobi, ut vocant, &c.," has given the inscription as follows:"Si quid habent veri vel Chronica, cana fidesve, Clauditur hac Cathedra, nobilis ecce Lapis:

Ad caput eximius Jacob quondam Patriarcha
Quem posuit, cernens numina mira poli.
Quem tulit ex Scotis spolians quasi victor honoris,
Edwardus Primus, Mars velut Armipotens,
Scotorum Domitur, noster validissimus Hector,
Anglorum Decus, et Gloria Militiæ,"

and reigned in it many years. He placed the aforesaid Stone, or Chair, at Themor, the royal residence, a noted place, at which his successors were accustomed to reside, distinguished with kingly honours. Gathelus, as some say, brought this Chair, with other regal ornaments, with him from Egypt into Spain. Others relate, that Simon Brek, having anchored on the Irish Coast, was forced by contrary winds to withdraw his anchors from the billowy surge, and whilst strenuously labouring to that end, a stone, in the form of a Chair, cut out of marble, was hauled up with the anchors into the ship. Receiving this, both as a precious boon from Heaven, and as a certain presage of future dominion; he, trembling with excessive joy, adored his gods for the gift, as if they had absolutely appointed him to the kingdom and the crown. It was there prophesied, likewise, that he and his posterity should reign wherever that Stone should be found: from which divination some one made this metrical prophecy, which, according to the common opinion, has frequently proved to be true :

"Ni fallat Fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum

Invenient Lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem."

In Holinshed's Chronicle is a long account of the above-named Gathelus, who is there said to have been a Greek, the sonne of Cecrops, who builded the citie of Athens.'

After leaving Greece, " Gathelus resided some time in Egypt, where he married Scota, the daughter of King Pharaoh; but being alarmed at the judgment de. nounced by Moses, who was then in Egypt, he quitted that country with many followers, and landed in Spain ;"

here he "builded a citie, which he named Brigantia ;” yet not without great opposition from the native Spaniards. Having at length succeeded in making peace with his neighbours, he sat "vpon his Marble Stone, in Brigantia, where he gave lawes and ministered justice vnto his people, thereby to menteine them in wealth and quietnesse. This Stone was in fashion like a seat, or chaire, having such a fatall destiny (as the Scots say) following it, that whereever it should be placed, there should the Scotish men reigne and have the supreme governaunce."

In the manuscript additions, made by an anonymous writer, in the reign of Henry VI., to the rhyming Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester (now preserved in the College of Arms), it is stated, that

"The Scottes yclupped were

Aftur a woman that Scote hyght, the dawter of Pharaon,
Yat broghte into Scotlond a whyte marble Ston,

Yat was ordeyed for thare Kyng, whan he coroned wer,
And for a grete Jewyll long hit was yhold ther.-

Kyng Edward wyth the lang Shankes from Scotland hit

fette,

Besyde the Shryne of Seynt Edward at Westminstre ther hitte sette."

In the Lowland Scotch of " Wintownis Chronikil," which was written by the Prior of the very ancient Monastery of St. Serf's Inch, in Loch Levin, between the years 1420 and 1424, the history of the Stone is thus given in the ninth chapter of the third book. This commences by stating, that in the time of the brothers Romulus and Remus, there was a mighty king

reigning in Spain, who had many sons, one of whom was "Simon Brek :"

“A gret Stáne phis King þhan had,
Dat fore pis Kyngis sete wes made,
And haldyne wes a gret jowale
Wytht-in þe Kynryk of Spayne hále.
Dis King bad þis Simon tá

Dat Stáne, and in-tyl Yrland gá,
And wyn þat Land and occupy,
And halde þat Stáne perpetually
And make it his sege pare

As þai of Spayne did it of are.”—

Simon Brek (continues the Chronicle) having arrived at, and conquered Ireland,

"Dare he made a gret Cytè

And in it syne þat Stáne gert he

Be set, and haldyn for jowale

And Chartyr of þat Kynryke hále."

Fergus, the son of Eric, a lineal descendant from

Brek, long afterwards

"Broucht þis stáne wyth-in Scotland

Fyrst qwhen he come and wane þat land,

And fyrst it set in Ikkolmkil,

And Scune pare-eftyr it wes broucht tyl:
And þare it was syne mony day

Qwhyll Edward gert have it away.”.

"Now will I be Werd rehers

As I fynd of þat Stáne in wers;

"Ni fallat Fatum, Scoti, quocunq; locatum,
Inuenient Lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.”