Cioniodh scuit saor an fine, Man ba breag an Faisdine. Mar a bh’ fhuighid an lia-fail, Dlighid flaitheas do ghabhail.
Which Hector Boethius has thus rendered into Latin:
Ne fallat fatum, Scoti quocunque locatum Invenient lapidem hunc, regnare tenentur ibidem.
Except old saws do feign, And wizards’ wits be blind, The Scots in place must reign, Where they this stone shall find.
Consider, Scot, where’er you find this stone, If fates fail not (or lie not), there fix’d must be your throne.
_Another from Langtoft_, vol. ii. p. 527.
The Scottis sall bruke that realme, as natyve Ground, (Geif weirdis fayll nocht) quhair euir this chiar is found.
That part of the history of the _Lia-faile_ which is considered authentic, may soon be told.--It was at an early period brought from Ireland to Dunstaffnage; from thence to Scone, in 842, by Kenneth II.; and, lastly, to Westminster, in 1296. In the Wardrobe Account of Edward, for March 1299, there is the following entry of a payment to “Walter the painter, for a step to the foot of the _New Chair, in which the Stone of Scotland_ was placed, near the altar, before the shrine of St Edward, in Westminster Abbey, and to the carpenters and painters painting the said step; and the gold and colours to paint it with; and making a case to cover the said chair, L.1: 19: 7.”--_Remarks on the Wardrobe Account_, page xli. Walsingham says, that the use Edward put it to, was to serve as a chair for the celebrating priests at Westminster.
In the treaty of peace between Robert Bruce and Edward III., there is a particular stipulation for the restoration of this Stone. The Londoners, however, had taken a fancy to it, and excited a commotion to prevent its removal; and Robert had no difficulty to persuade his people, to waive the performance of the agreement. Indeed, so deep-rooted has been the belief of the Scots in the augury attached to it, that many looked upon the accession of James to the British throne as the fulfilment of the prediction. Even in the present day, when there is so much anxiety evinced for the recovery of objects held in national estimation, we do not hear of any application being made to his Majesty for the restoration of the _Lia-faile_. There is no doubt but many of those who witnessed the original aggression, would console themselves with the reflection, that the _“Lang-shanked Southerone” had caught a Tartar_.