[Several of our historians, as Matthew of Westminster, Hector Boethius,
Robert of Gloucester, the poet Harding, &c., have noticed this singular
legend; but we believe the Rabbinical writers (as suggested by our
Indian correspondent) have never been consulted respecting it.
Sandford, in his valuable _History of the Coronation of James II_.
(fol., 1687, p. 39.), has given some dates and names which will
probably assist our correspondents in elucidating the origin of this
far-famed relic. He says, "Jacob's stone, or _The Fatal Marble Stone_,
is an oblong square, about twenty-two inches long, thirteen inches
broad, and eleven inches deep, of a bluish steel-like colour, mixed
with some veins of red; whereof history relates that it is the stone
whereon the patriarch Jacob is said to have lain his head in the plain
of Luza. That it was brought to Brigantia in the kingdom of Gallacia in
Spain, in which place Gathal, King of Scots, sat on it as his throne.
Thence it was brought into Ireland by Simon Brech, first King of Scots,
about 700 years before Christ's time, and from thence into Scotland, by
King Fergus, about 330 years before Christ. In the year 850 it was
placed in the abbey of Scone in the sherifdom of Perth by King Kenneth,
who caused it to be inclosed in a wooden chair (now called St. Edward's
Chair), and this prophetical distich engraven on it:
'Ni fallat Fatum, Scoti hunc quocunque locatum
Inveniunt lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.'
'If Fates go right, where'er this stone is found,
The Scots shall monarchs of that realm be crown'd.'
Which is the more remarkable by being fulfilled in the person of James
I. of England." Calmet, however, states that the Mahometans profess to
have this relic in their custody. He says, The Mahometans think that
Jacob's stone was conveyed to the Temple of Jerusalem, and is still
preserved in the mosque there, where the Temple formerly stood. They
call it _Al-sakra_, or the stone of unction. The Cadi Gemaleddin, son
of Vallel, writes, that passing through Jerusalem, in his way to Egypt,
he saw Christian priests carrying glass phials full of wine over the
Sakra, near which the Mussulmen had built their temple, which, for this
reason, they call the Temple of the Stone. The wine which the Christian
priests set upon the stone was no doubt designed for the celebration of
mass there."]
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