Stone mystery

You picture “The Stone of Destiny” (Now and Then, 29 September). It could be less contentious to call it “The Stone of Scone”, or “The Stone of Westminster”.

It seems unlikely that the monks of Scone in 1296 would have left the Scottish Coronation Stone, which was in their charge, for the invading Edward I of England to collect.

He certainly took a stone from Scone to London, which may or may not have been a cesspit cover which had been substituted for the one Edward wanted. It looks like a block of Perthshire sandstone rather than the dense, possibly meteoritic, stone which history suggests.

The Stone from Westminster returned to Scotland in 1950 and a stone, which may or may not have been the same one, went back to London. In any case, the stone in London had acquired a sentimental status and it was appropriate for it to be moved to Edinburgh in 1996. Some of us still hope, one day, for the the truth.

David Stevenson

Blacket Place

Edinburgh