The Celtic name of the stone now in the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey is Lia Fail, "the speaking stone", which named the king who would be chosed. Cambray in his "Monuments Celtiques" claims to have seen the stone when it bore the inscription: Ni fallat fatum, Scoti quocumque locatum Invenient lapidiem, regnasse tenetur ibidem: If the Destiny prove true, then the Scots are known to have been Kings where'er men find this stone. A few miles up the river from Perth is the site of the historic Abbey of Scone, where the kings of Scotland were crowned. But the glory of Scone has long departed, for, even in the time of the writing of the old "Statistical Account"...."on the spot where our ancient kings were crowned there now grows a clump of trees." At Scone the Coronation Stone or Stone of Destiny was "reverently kept for the consecration of the kings of Alba" and, according to an old chronicler, "no king was ever wont to reign in Scotland unless he had first, on receiving the royal name, sat upon this stone at Scone, which by the kings of old had been appointed to the capital of Alba." The Stone of Destiny, now in Westminster Abbey (at the time this was written), is an oblong block of RED SANDSTONE, some 26 inches long by 16 inches broad, and 10 1/2 inches deep: on the flat top of the stone are the marks of chiselling. Tradition (legend) affirms that it is the same stone stone which Jacob used as a pillow at Bethel and then set up as a pillar and anointed with oil: later, according to Jewish tradition (possible legend), it became the pedestal of the ark in the Temple. The stone was brought from Syria to Egypt by Gathelus, who in order to escape the plague, sailed, on the advice of Moses, from the Nile with his wife and the Stone of Destiny, and landed in Spain. Gathelus sent the stone to Eire when he had invaded that country, and it was later brought to Scotland where it remained in the Abbey of Scone until the year 1296, Edward I of England carried it to Eng
