By pure chance on our drive up to visit our son in
Dundee I picked up a small book on our Scottish hero William Wallace. I had been reading of Wallace in a Robert Burn's biography. Burns was inspired by reading of Wallace and he wished to write a
song for him - and so Burns wrote his now famous song 'Scots Wa Hae wi
Wallace bled.'
It can be a strange thing how one journey steps us
on to another. So there I was on the road to Arbroath abbey, which we found to
be a large imposing red sandstone building steeped in Scottish history and
built by William I of Scotland in 1178. Here men spoke of their cherished
freedom back in 1320, and here Glasgow
students in 1950 returned the Stone of
Destiny, on which Scottish kings had been crowned for 450 years at Scone
Abbey near Perth. (they bravely stole the stone from Westmister Abbey at Christmas time!) .. This was the place
that the Arbroath Declaration of
Independence was signed by lords, commons and the clergy of Scotland in
1320. In it they had affirmed our right
to be free to live our own lives in our own way. There is a clip of Ian Hamilton who led the students at the Arbroath visitors centre, speaking
of his quest to awaken Scotland from its long slumber, his voice chokes as he
speaks..
...for, as long as but a
hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under
English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are
fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man gives up but
with life itself.
So I bought Hamilton's book and enjoyed reading it. In it he writes, ' On the morning of 11 April 1951, I left Glasgow with Bill Craig. At
Stirling Bridge we thumbed a lift from a car driven by Councillor Gray,
which contained the Stone of Destiny, now carefully repaired. At midday we
carried it down the grass-floored nave of the abbey and left it at the high
later. It was a crucifixion.
When we turned away and stood for a minute at the gate, and looked down
the long nave flanked by the blood-red sandstone of the walls to the alter
where the Stone lay under the blue and white of a Satire. I heard the voice of
Scotland speak as clearly as it spoke in 1320.
I continue on my journey learning Scots history and
considering it is so interesting it is quite a shame that it practically died
out in schools back after the war. Then we had to aspire to being second rate
English here and learn English history - The Tudors, Wordsworth and Shakespeare
etc. at school.
I was fortunate that I had a Mr MacDonald from the Hebrides who was a tall man
who often wore a blue kilt, for my headmaster at primary school, and so we were
lucky we learnt a Burns poem every year and sang Burns songs with our school
choir. I have such fond and vivid memoirs of this. It is wonderful to note that today things have
changed and Scottish school children do now learn about their own country's
past.
A Short history. During Alexander II's reign things were stable in Scotland. He was married
to the daughter of the English king and his daughter married the King of Norway
Sadly his two sons died and his daughter died giving birth to a daughter (who later died). Storm clouds were brewing and
Alexander had no heir. Disaster was predicted and when he suddenly died the
Scottish Wars of Independence began.
When Edward Longshanks, the Hammer of the Scots,
paraded north, he stole the Stone of Destiny from Perth and put it under a new Coronation
throne in Westminster. Scottish kings had been crowned on the stone for 450
years. After Robert the Bruce and the Battle of Bannockburn, Edward II agreed to
return the stone to Scotland in 1328.
Hamilton writes - "The symbol of her liberty had come back to Scotland, and we felt
that some sort of rude ceremony was needed to mark the return of the Lia Fail
to the custody of its own people.
We stopped and drew the coat back and exposed the Stone to the air of
Scotland for the first time in 600 years. from the provision basket we produced
the gill of whisky, and poured a libation over the stone's roughness. thus,
quietly, with little fuss, with no army, with no burning of houses or killing people, and for the expenditure
of less than £1000, we brought Scotland back the Stone of Destiny."
The Stone was returned to Edinburgh 'on loan' oddly
(?) in 1997 with the setting up of the Scottish Parliament. Was this the real stone? Does it all matter? Yes the stone is a symbol of Scotland's long
and unique history and identity.
A movie about Hamilton and
The Stone of Destiny was released in 2008 with Charlie Cox playing Hamilton.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stone-Destiny-Ian-R-Hamilton/
Ian Hamilton writes in his Stone of Destiny, ' History is on the side of the small nations. Look about you and you will see the truth.'
'When on 25 march 1707 James Ogilvie, Earl of Seafield, Chancellor of Scotland, signed the Act of Union, ending Scotland's ancient independence, and merging the two parliaments of Scotland and England into the United Kingdom Parliament, he threw down the quill with these words: 'Now there's the end of an auld sang.'
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stone-Destiny-Ian-R-Hamilton/
Ian Hamilton writes in his Stone of Destiny, ' History is on the side of the small nations. Look about you and you will see the truth.'
'When on 25 march 1707 James Ogilvie, Earl of Seafield, Chancellor of Scotland, signed the Act of Union, ending Scotland's ancient independence, and merging the two parliaments of Scotland and England into the United Kingdom Parliament, he threw down the quill with these words: 'Now there's the end of an auld sang.'
It may be, it just may be, that on Christmas Day 1950 four young people
wrote a new verse to that old song. Whatever we did, the song is still being
sung.'
