A Scotch preacher tells this story. He said that he was going
through the highlands of Scotland when a storm came on. He stept
out of his carriage, and went up to a little Scotch hut. He was
invited to enter by the woman whose home it was. In one corner
of the room there stood an old rocking-chair, and he was just
going to sit in this, when the Scotch woman made one spring,
and stopt him. She said: “No, no. Do not sit there.” And the
preacher said: “Why?” “Well,” she said, “look.” And round about
it was wrapt a scarlet cord. She said: “It was a year ago this
week, sir, when our good lady, her Majesty Queen Victoria was
driving along this road and a storm came on. She came in, and we
gave her this chair. And when the Queen went away, we said, ‘We
will put a scarlet cord around it, and nobody else shall ever
sit in it. It is the Queen’s chair.’”
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