138 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



year at Rottingdean, and he went on, obeying 

 what seems to be a law of nature for all Lubbocks, 

 to Eton. 



At the annual dinner of the Bankers this year 

 they presented Lord Avebury with a testimonial, 

 in the form of plate, in recognition of his services 

 as their Secretary, Vice-Chairman, and Chairman. 

 He had acted as Secretary since 1863. 



On July 11 he notes that he went with the 

 Duke of Northumberland to see the Lia Phail. 

 The Dean had it taken out of the chair for their 

 inspection. He writes : " There is a clear cross, 

 and a series of marks making a quadrangle, as 

 if a plate had been fixed on — also a cup, not 

 however very clear. It is a red sandstone with 

 one or two quartz pebbles." 



The Lia Phail, it may be noted, is " the cele- 

 brated stone, identified in Irish legend with the 

 stone on which the patriarch Jacob slept when 

 he dreamed of the heavenly ladder. The Lia- 

 fail was supposed to have been brought to 

 Ireland by the Dedannans and set up at Tara 

 as the ' inauguration stone ' of the Irish kings ; 

 it was subsequently removed to Scone, where it 

 became the coronation stone of the Scottish 

 kings, until it was taken by James VI. of Scotland 

 to Westminster and placed under the Coronation 

 Chair in the Abbey, where it has since remained." 

 That is the account given of it, under article 

 ' ' Inisfail ' ' in The Encyclopaedia Britannica. Inis = 

 island ; and poetically Ireland was sometimes 

 named Inisfail, the island of the Fail or Phail. 



A few days previously he and Lady Avebury, 

 having been advised to take their boy Eric 



