Lethaby, William Richard: Westminster Abbey and the antiquities of the coronation (London: Duckworth & Co., 1911)

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paign of 1296, marched north to Aber-
deen after reducing Edinburgh Castle,
and on his return by Perth he visited
the Abbey of Scone, the Coronation
church of Scotland. Here he seized
the throne (of which the famous stone
formed part), and “sent to London an
unwrought marble stone wherein it was
vulgarly reported, and believed, that the
destiny of the kingdom was contained.”
It appears in inventories of the time as
“the Scottish stone,” “a great stone
upon which the Kings of Scotland were
wont to be crowned.” The legends
which had gathered about it gave it
great sentimental and symbolic value
as a prize of war. “It was regarded
as assuring secure possession to the
Kings of Scotland of the land in which
it was.”
At Tara, in Ireland, there was a stone
not less famous called Lia Fail, “the
fatal stone,” which had similar proper-
ties. The people of Scotland seemed to
have claimed that the Stone of Scone
was Lia Fail itself, but the fatal stone
remained at Tara. It had the prophetic
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