Abbey,
Fatal Stone,
of authority. But I mull remark with Mr. Guthrie, that this«
tribution ought to be taken in a more limited fenfe ; it beinei,’
credible that any Prince fhould thus totally diveit himfelf 0f ji'
the royal demefnes. It is moil probable that he only renewed»
bis Barons the grants of their lands, and in- reward for their faithftl
lervices made their tenures fure and hereditary, which- before thei
eld precarioufly, and on the will of the Crown *.
.The abbey was founded by Alexander the Firit, in 1114 and
was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St. Michael the arch.;
angel, and filled with canons regular of St. Auguftine. It is fail
to have been originally a feat of the Culdees, which is not in-
probable,, as it is not to be fuppofed that fo noted a place could,
be deftitute of fome religious order. The revenues at the Re.
ormation were confiderable: amounting to 1140/. 6s. 6d. Scuta
Mdes fixteen chaldrons and two firlots of wheat} feventy-tta
chaldrons thirteen bolls, two firlots and two pecks of bear; fixtv-
two chaldrons o f meal; eighteen, chaldrons and three bolls of oats;
and one laft of lalmon,
In the church of this abbey was-preferved the famous chair,
whofe bottom was the fatal Hone, the palladium of the Scotti
monarchy; the Hone,, which had firft ferved Jacob for his pillow,
was afterwards tranfported into Spain, where it was ufed as a feat H
juitice by Gethalus, cotemporary with Mofes. It afterwards found
its way to Dunjlaffage in Argylejhire, continued there as the corona-
tion chair till the reign of Kenneth II. who-to fecure his empire!
removed it to Scone. Here it remained, and in it every. Scottifi
* U ijis Scotland. I, 226»
monarch.-
■ 11:1
Inonarch was inaugurated till the year 1296, when Edward I. to
ihe mortification of North-Britain, tranflated it to PEeJlminfter
abbey ; and with it, according to antient prophecy, the empire
of Scotland.
I The ceremony of placing the new monarch in the coronation
th a ir was hereditary in the antient Earls of Fife. Edward, in the
midfl: of his ufurpation, paid a ftridt attention to that point .: the
Office was in Duncan the eleventh Earl; but as he was under age,
and with the King, I find in Rymer’ s Fcedtra * a writ, dated Nov. 21,
^292, at Norham, directing one John of Perth, jnftead of the
#oung Earl, to perform the ceremony of putting his creature John
haliol into the regal chair at Scone.
I This abbey, with the church, 111 the year 1559, underwent the
common fate of religious houfes, in the furious and ungovernable
feafon of Reformation. This was demoliihed by the zealots
t f Dundee, in refentment of one of their company being killed by
a {hot from the houfe. The nobility who were prefent itrove to
divert their rage, being more interefied in the prefervation, from the
fprofpeil of iharing in the plunder of the church.
■ In the church i-s the monument of Sir David Murray, anceftor Chorch.
fcf Lord Stormont, the prefent owner of the place. Sir David’s
pgure is placed in an,attitude of devotion, with a long infcrip-
|ion, relating his lineage, offices and virtues. Charles II. was
frowned in this church before he fet out on the expedition that
terminated in the fatal battle of Worcefter. The crown was placed
f>n his head by the Marquis of Argyle, the wily peer being for once
* V o l. II. p . 600.
0 .3 cheated