Stone of Destiny? Pastry?

[starbkjrus]

Makes you wonder how the Scottish monarchs managed at their coronations until the Union of the Crowns...

...snip

...well, the Bruces and the Stewarts ARE pretty stubborn. Trust me, I have personal experience.

[McClef]

The current stone might not even be the original:

"But is the stone that finally rests securely in Edinburgh Castle the real Stone of Destiny? After so many centuries, it is impossible to know. According to one legend, the Stone never left Ireland at all. One tale suggests that the original Stone of Destiny was white marble, carved with decorative figures -- in no way resembling the plain slab of yellow sandstone with a single Latin cross carved on it that sat beneath the throne in Westminster Abbey for these past seven centuries. To make matters more confusing, there may have been several copies made down through the ages! It is entirely within the realm of possibility that some canny Scots fobbed off a fake on Edward I, seven hundred years ago, hiding the original coronation stone where it would never be found. One story particularly satisfying to Scottish nationalists with long memories claims that Edward actually took the rough rock used to hold down the cover of the cess-pit at Scone Castle, and that subsequent English monarchs have ceremoniously seated themselves on this medieval plumbing accessory for their coronations ever since 1308! At least one acknowledged copy of the "Westminster" Stone exists, on public display at beautiful Scone Palacein Perthshire, where it serves as a favorite roost for the elegant peacocks and camera-toting tourists who stroll the grounds.

Are there additional copies? On Christmas Day, 1950, four Scottish students, inspired by nationalist sentiment, heisted the Stone from under the Coronation Throne in Westminster Abbey, dumped it in the trunk of their car, and drove off with it. About four months later the rock was recovered from the Arbroath Abbey, where it had been deposited by the stone-nappers. Or was it? Rumours have always persisted that there was plenty of time for the students to fashion a replica to be “returned” to Westminster, while the original Stone was spirited north to a secret location in Scotland. One seemingly far-fetched theory even suggested that the actual stone was hiding in plain sight for decades -- that the purported replica on public display at Scone Palace was in fact the real Stone of Destiny!"

So the stone my old university friend Michael Forsyth, as the then Secretary of State for Scotland received from Prince Andrew and now lodged in Edinburgh Castle, might not be the original in any case!