both anointed and
crowned[1]: while some of our own "honest chroniclers" assign to it a
still more marvellous antiquity.

Holinshed gives us the history of one Gathelus, a Greek, who brought
from Egypt into Spain the identical stone on which the patriarch Jacob
slept and "poured oil" at Luz. He was "the sonne of Cecrops, who builded
the citie of Athens;" but having married Scota, the daughter of Pharaoh,
he resided for some time in Egypt, from whence he was induced to remove
into the West by the judgments pronounced on that country by Moses. In
Spain, "having peace with his neighbors, he builded a citie called
Brigantia (Compostella)," where he "sat vpon his marble stone, gave
lawes, and ministred justice vnto his people, thereby to maintaine them
in wealth and quietnesse," And "Hereof it came to passe, that first in
Spaine, after in Ireland, and then in Scotland, the kings which ruled
over the Scotishmen received the crowne sittinge vpon that stone, vntill
the time of Robert the First, king of Scotland." In another part of his
"Historie of Scotland," Holinshed mentions king Simon Brech as having
transmitted this stone to Ireland, about 700 years before the birth of
Christ, and that "the first Fergus" brought it "out of Ireland into
Albion," B.C. 330. One important property of this stone should not be
unnoticed. It is said, by the writers from whom the foregoing
particulars are derived, to furnish a test of legitimate royal descent;
yielding an oracular sound when a prince of the true blood is placed
upon it, and remaining silent under a mere pretender to the throne. We
heard various joyful acclamations on the recent "royal day;" but
(perhaps from that very circumstance) could not distinguish the sound in
question.

Apart from these legends, the real history of the [Saxon: hag-fail], or
Fatal Stone[2], is curious; and has induced the learned Toland to call
it "the antientest respected monument in the world[3]." It is to be
traced, on the best authorities, into Ireland; whence it had been
brought into Scotland, and had become of great notoriety in Argyleshire,
some time before the reign of Kennith, or A.D. 834. This monarch found
it at Dunstaffnage, a royal castle, enclosed it in a wooden chair, and
removed it to the abbey of Scone, where for 450 years "all kingis of
Scotland war crownit" upon it; or "quhil y^e tyme of Robert Bruse. In
quhais tyme, besyde mony othir crueltis done be kyng EDWARD Lang
Schankis, the said