London Stone shrouded in mystery and myths

Los Angeles Times / latimes.com ^ | September 3, 2010|8:00 p.m. | By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times

[SunkenCiv]

Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and poet William Blake all wrote about the stone. One 15th century rebel declared himself ruler of London by striking it with his sword.

[SunkenCiv]

Probably came from Wensleydale’s.

[wildbill]

Sometimes a stone is just a stone, but a good cigar is forever.

[Chode]

To be a rock and not to roll...

[Condor51]

*** To be a rock and not to roll... ***

And she's buying a stairway to heaven.

;-)

[Ditter]

Interesting, thanks. I have seen the Stone of Scone and kissed the Blarney Stone but I never heard of this one.

[Bellflower]

Interesting looking stone as it almost looks melted or like it once was molten on the top.

[Chode]

absolutely...

[patton]

Needs a link to the Stone of Scone.

[bert]

The rock is a very old unit of mensuration that defines limit of movement to "within a stones throw".

[colorado tanker]

The Stone of Scone was under the coronation chair at Westminster:

But in the 1990's the English gave it back to the Scots. It is now in Edinborough Castle. Supposedly, it will be sent back to Westminster for the coronation of the next monarch, which hopefully won't be horseface.

[SunkenCiv]

Scone (”skoon”) was stolen in the 1950s, was missing for some years, and then supposedly returned in the, hmm, 1970s? Some claim that the real stone wasn’t returned.

[colorado tanker]

Yep. I think there's another legend that the stone was swapped out during the Middle Ages to keep it from the English and the original was lost.

The most intriguing story is that the stone's origin is Biblical, from the Holy Land. I'd need to see some solid scientific testing to back that up, though.

[Vanders9]

No Blarney would be Irish.

[lefty-lie-spy]

yes, but if I said “sounds like a load of arse”, it wouldn’t be funny.

[Vanders9]

Yeah but these kind of things add color to life. Sure its probably just a lump of rock, but then you could equally say that the liberty bell is just a cracked piece of metal. It’s the belief that’s important, not the item itself. Ascribing alleged mystical properties to inanimate objects is a uniquely Human thing to do - it’s what separates us from the animals. As long as you dont get too carried away with that kind of thing, it doesn’t do too much harm.

[lefty-lie-spy]

Two words: fire hydrant

[Vanders9]

er....you’ll have to unpack that a bit for me. Sorry.