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'stone Of Scone."

'stone Of Scone." image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
October
Year
1896
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

It ia a Jong walk iroro the clming room of the Westininster school to the coronation chair, which stands behiud the old stone screen jnst back of the altar in the abbey, but there is an interesting coneotion between the two. This chair, as is well known, is a rude, heavy oak chair, much woru by time. It contains the "Stoue of Scone" and was made by the order of Bdward I in 1297, and every English sovereigu since then has sat iu it to be crowned. A stout railing in front of the chair restrains the crowd of visitors from coming near, but if they were allowed to examine it as closely as I was fortĂșnate enough to do they would -find cut boldly into the solid oak seat in such sprawling letters as the schoolboy's knife makes upon his desk, "P. Abbott slept in this chair Jan. 4, 1801." P. Abbott, it seems, was a Westminster schoolboy, and a tradition, which there is every -reason to believe is true, tells that he made a wager with a schoolmate that he dare stay in the abbey all night alone. In order to win his wager he hid in some corner of the old building until the doors were locked for the night and thus was left alone there. Fearing, however, that when morning carne the boy with whom he had made the bet would disbelieve his statement that he had won it, he determined to have some proof of the fact, and so spant the hours of the early morning in carving on the coronation chair the sentence which, even now, nearly a century after, bears witness for him. It is disappointing that the tradition does not record just what form and amount of punishment was visited upon the lad for his escapade, and that history does not teil us of his later years. I wonder whether the courage and grit which this deed manifested foretold an energetic, successful life or was dissipated

Article

Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News