chiar of merbyll wes taikin be Inglismen, and brocht
out of Scone to London, and put into Westmonistar, quhaer it remains to
our dayis[4]."

An ancient Irish prophecy, quoted by Mr. Taylor in his learned "Glory of
Regality[5]," assures us, that the possession of this stone is essential
to the preservation of regal power. It runs literally, "The race of
Scots of the true blood, if this prophecy be not false, unless they
possess the Stone of Fate, shall fail to obtain regal power." King
Kennith caused the leonine verses following to be engraved on the
chair:--

Ni fallat fatum
Scoti quocunque locatum
Invenient lapidem
Regnare tenentur ibidem.

Thus given by Camden,

Or Fate is blind,
Or Scots shall find,
Where'er this stone
A royal throne.

A prophecy which is said to have reconciled many a true Scot to the
Union in Queen Anne's time; and which, since the extinction of the
Stuart family, is remarkably fulfilled in the claims of the House of
Brunswick,--George IV. being now the legitimate heir of both lines.

At or near a consecrated stone, it was an ancient Eastern custom to
appoint kings or chieftains to their office. Thus we read in Scripture
of Abimelech being "made king by the plain of the pillar that was in
Shechem[6]," (the earliest royal appointment, perhaps, of which we have
any traces in history;) and of Joash having the "crown put upon him"
while he "stood by a pillar, as the manner was[7]." Subsequently, and
among the northern nations, the practice "was to form a circle of large
stones, commonly twelve in number, in the middle of which one was set
up, much larger than the rest: this was the royal seat; and the nobles
occupied those surrounding it, which served also as a barrier to keep
off the people who stood without. Here the leading men of the kingdom
delivered their suffrages, and placed the elected king on his seat of
dignity[8]." From such places, afterwards, justice was frequently
dispensed.

"The old mun early rose, walk'd forth, and sate
On polished stone, before his palace gate;
With unguent smooth the lucid marble shone,
Where ancient Neleus sate, a rustic throne."

HOMER'S _Odyss._ POPE'S _Tr._ [Greek: G]. 496--10.

Thus arises the name of our Court of King's Bench.

At the coronation of our kings, the royal chair is now disguised in
cloth of gold; but the wood-work, which forms its principal parts, is
supposed to be the same in which Edward I. recased it,