STONE OF DESTINY, THE. The " Stone of Destiny " is a name by which an ancient piece of rock now enclosed in the British Coronation Chair is known. The stone and chair are kept in Edward the Confessor's Chapel in Westminster Abbey. The stone is that upon which in early times the Scottish monarchs were crowned at Scone, in Perthshire. It was brought from Scotland by Edward I. There was an old prophecy in rhyme concerning it : " If fates go right, where'er this stone be found.
The Scots shall monarchs of that realm be crowned." The prophecy was fulfilled, it has been said, in 1G03 when James the Sixth of Scotland and the First of Eng land was crowned, at Westminster, seated on the Corona tion Chair with the Stone of Destiny beneath it. As regards the origin of the stone it has even been claimed that this is the identical piece of rock that served the Old Testament patriarch Jacob for a pillow, or the piece of rock from which water flowed when Moses struck it.
The truth, however, is that for one reason or another the worship of stones or pieces of rock has been common in primitive religions. It appears from Irish mythology that Ireland too had its " Stone of Destiny," a mysterious stone " which would cry out with a human voice to acclaim a rightful king " (C. Squire). It is true indeed that some people would identify this stone with the " Coronation Stone " in Westminster Abbey; but there iQ every reason to believe that there were a number of such stones, and, as Charles Squire says, " it is more probable that it [the Irish Stone of Destiny'] still stands upon the hill of Tara, where it was preserved as a kind of fetish by the early kings of Ireland." See H. O. Arnold-Forster, Our Great City, 1907; Squire, Myth.