A few years ago the following tradition was related to me by a friend, and
I should be glad if any of your correspondents can inform me whether it is
current in any part of Great Britain or Ireland, and whether there are any
grounds for it. As it is connected with one of our most interesting
national relics, the coronation stone, it may not prove beneath notice; and
I here give it in full, shielding myself with the Last Minstrel's excuse:
"I know not how the truth may be,
But I tell the tale as 'twas told to me."
I must allow that its extreme vagueness, if not improbability, hardly
warrants an inquiry; but having failed in obtaining any satisfactory proofs
among my own friends, as a last resource I apply myself to the columns of
your well-known and useful journal.
When Jacob awoke after his wonderful dream, as related in Genesis (chap.
xxviii.), he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not;"
and he was afraid, and said, "How dreadful is this place. This is none
other but the house of God; and this is the gate of heaven." He "took the
stone that he had put for his pillow and set it up for a pillar, and poured
oil upon the top of it. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with
me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat
and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace,
then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a
pillar, shall be God's house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I will
surely give the tenth unto Thee."
That stone (so runs the legend) is supposed to have been taken away from
Bethel by the House of Joseph, when they destroyed the city and its
inhabitants (Judges i.); and a tradition, that whosoever possessed that
stone would be especially blessed, and be king or chief, was current among
the Jews; the stone itself being guarded by them with jealous care.
On the first destruction of Jerusalem, some of the royal family of Judah
are supposed to have escaped, and to have gone in search of an asylum
beyond the sea, taking this precious stone with them. Their resting-place
was Ireland, where they founded a kingdom. Many centuries afterwards, a
brother of the king descended from these exiles, named Fergus, went, with
his brother's permission, to found a kingdom in Scotland. He said, however,
he would not go without the sacred stone. This his brother refused to give
him; but Fergus stole it, and established a kingdom in Scotland. His
descendants became kings of all Scotland, and were crowned sitting on that
stone, {124} which was taken away by Edward I., and is now in Westminster
Abbey.
These are the outlines of this tradition. My object now is to ask whether
any of your correspondents can inform me, first, Whether the Jews had, or
have, any like superstition concerning Jacob's pillar; and whether the
royal family of Judah possessed such a stone among their treasures?
Secondly, Whether any Jews are supposed to have settled in Ireland at so
early a period; and whether (that being the case) there are now, or were
once, proofs of their having done so, either in the Irish language or in
any of the ancient laws, customs, buildings, &c. of the country? Thirdly,
Whether the Scotch believe that stone to have come from Ireland; and
whether that belief in the owner of it being king existed in Scotland? and,
lastly, Can any of your correspondents, learned in geology, inform me
whether the like kind of stone is to be met with in any part of the British
Isles? or whether, as the legend runs, a similar kind of stone is found in
the Arabian plains? The story has interested me greatly; and if I could
gain any enlightenment on the subject, I should be much obliged for it.