CORONATION STONE.

Motueka Star, Volume III, Issue 111, 5 September 1902, Page 3

CORONATION STONE.

The following remarks upon the Coronation stone will be of interest to many colonial readers :—The stone is spoken of by the Dean-of Westminster in “Memorials of Westminster Abbey,” •is “that ancient. Irish Muniment of the Empire, known as the Coronation stone, and that it is the one primeval monument wliicli binds together the whole Empire. The iroo rings, the battered surface, the crack which has all but rent its solid mass asunder bear witness to its long migrations.” The stone is called l>y the Irish and the Scotch, indifferently, “Lia Fail” and “the Stone of Destiny,” but is generally spoken of by the English as “Jacobs Pillow,” and believed to be the veritable stone on which the Patriarch slept at the gate of Lux on the occasion of his remarkable prophetic dream or vision. It is called “Lia Fail” because it was always so known in Pagan times from when first it arrived in Ireland. Lia or Leag (Lee aheh), signifying “a stone in Irish,” and Fail, being understood to mean “destiny.” But although the word “Lia” is Irish the word “Phail” is Hebrew and is a scupture word of the brightest, deepest, theological import, the word signifying “Wonderful,” and finds its only equivalent in the word “incomprehensible.” In modern Irish it means “Fate.” The Rev. F. R. A. Glover, M.A., says that the stone is called the Stone of Destiny because a prophetic rune has attached itself to it foi^some 2,450 years, and the district which is in the Irish Celtic dialect lias been rendered (one word excepted) bv Si Walter Scott, thus : Unless the Fates are faithless grown, And Prophets’ voice be vain Where’er is found this Sacred Stone The Wanderer’s Race shall reign. That the stone came from the East its Hebrew name makes sure, aud it is considered by the best authorities that it was brought to Ireland by the Prophet Jeremiah and Baruch (with Tephi, the King's daughter,) in the ships in which the tribe of Dan escaped from the Babylonish captivity about the year 587 B.C. Tephi, the King’s daughter, married Eochaid, of Cotbair-Crofin, and be the prophecy true or false, it is an incontrovertible fact that the stone this sceptre of sovereignty over our race has remained with the descendants of Tephi of the R \yal House of King David, until this vary day. His Majesty King Edward the Seventh new wielding it. Thus for a period of about 2,500 years this stone so venerated, and whose history is so mysterious, has been used at all coronations that have taken place during that long period. I may add that the stone was taken fi*om Ireland by Fergus the Ist of Scotland who was crowned upon it at lona as the first King of the Scots in the year 530 A.D., Fergus being a lineal descendant ot the ancient Kings of Ireland, as were all of the ancient Scottish Kings. The stone, together with the regalia of Scotland, came into the possession of England by conquest. Most of the regalia was restored to Scotland, but the stone has been retained in England, where it has been ever a cherished, and awe inspiring object.