In Tyll Eulenspiegel we have a similar hoax. Eulenspiegel sees a man with a piece of green cloth, which he resolves to obtain. He employs two confederates, both priests. Says Eulenspiegel to the man, “What a famous piece of blue cloth! Where did you get it?” “Blue, you fool! why, it is green.” After a short contention, a bet is made, and the question in dispute is referred to the first comer. This was a confederate, and he at once decided that the cloth was blue. “You are both in the same boat,” says the man, “which I will prove by the priest yonder.” The question being put to the priest, is decided against the man, and the three rogues divide the cloth amongst them.
Another version is in novel 8 of Fortini. The joke was that certain kids he had for sale were capons.—See Dunlop, History of Fiction, viii. art. “Ser Giovanni.”
Scone [Skoon], a palladium stone. It was erected in Icolmkil for the coronation of Fergus Eric, and was called the Lia-Fail of Ireland. Fergus, the son of Fergus Eric, who led the Dalriads to Argyllshire, removed it to Scone; and Edward I. took it to London. It still remains in Westminster Abbey, where it forms the support of Edward the Confessor’s chair, which forms the coronation chair of the British monarchs.
Ni fallat fatum, Scoti, quocunque locatum
Invenient lapidem, regnare tenentur ibidem.
Lardner, History of Scotland, i. 67 (1832).
Where’er this stone is placed, the fates decree,
The Scottish race shall there the sovereigns be.
*** Of course, the “Scottish race” is the dynasty of the Stuarts and their successors.
Scotch Guards, in the service of the French kings, were called his garde du corps. The origin of the guard was this: When St. Louis entered upon his first crusade, he was twice saved from death by the valor of a small band of Scotch auxiliaries under the commands of the earls of March and Dunbar, Walter Stuart, and Sir David Lindsay. In gratitude thereof, it was resolved that “a standing guard of Scotchmen, recommended by the king of Scotland, should ever more form the body-guard of the king of France.” This decree remained in force for five centuries.—Grant, The Scottish Cavalier, xx.
Scotland. So called, according to legend, from Scota, daughter of Pharaoh. What gives this legend especial interest is, that when Edward I. laid claim to the country as a fief of England, he pleaded that Brute, the British king, in the days of Eli and Samuel, had conquered it. The Scotch, in their defence, pleaded their independence in virtue of descent from Scota, daughter of Pharaoh. This is not fable, but sober history.—Rymer, Fœdera, I. ii. (1703).
Scotland a Fief of England. When Edward I. laid claim to Scotland as a fief of the English crown, his great plea was that it was awarded to Adelstan, by direct miracle, and, therefore, could never be alienated. His advocates seriously read from The Life and Miracles of St. John of Beverley, this extract: Adelstan went to drive back the Scotch, who had crossed the border, and, on reaching the Tyne, St. John of Beverley appeared to him, and bade him cross the river at daybreak. Adelstan obeyed, and reduced the whole kingdom to submission. On reaching Dunbar, in the return march, Adelstan prayed that some sign might be given, to testify to all ages that God had delivered the kingdom into his hands. Whereupon he was commanded to strike the basaltic rock with his sword. This did he, and the blade sank into the rock “as if it had been butter,” cleaving it asunder for “an ell or more.” As the cleft remains to the present hour, in testimony of this miracle, why, of course, cela va sans dire.—Rymer, Fœdera, I. ii. 771 (1703).
Scotland’s Scourge, Edward I. His son, Edward II., buried him in Westminster Abbey, where his tomb is still to be seen, with the following inscription:—