822 
SCONE. 
To SCONCE, v. a. [A word used in the universities, 
and derived plausibly by Skinner, whose etymologies are 
generally rational, from sconce, as it signifies the head; to 
sconce being to fix on any one’s head.] To mulct; to fine. 
A loro word which ought not to be retained. —Pease-pud¬ 
ding not boiled enough; cook reprimanded, and sconced in 
my presence. Warton. 
SCONE, or Scoon, a village in a parish of the same 
name, in Perthshire, Scotland, is siturted at the distance of 
a mile and a half north from the to-.vn of Perth. Though 
reduced to comparative insignificance, it was anciently of 
great distinction, the chief seat of the Scottish monarchs, 
and the place where the states of the nation met to deliberate 
on all important occasions. Some writers assert, that it was 
also the capital of the Pictish dominions. Kenneth II. re¬ 
moved hither from Argyle the stone chair which the kings 
of Scotland occupied during the ceremony of coronation. 
On a tumulus still in existence, they held their courts of jus¬ 
tice, and promulgated laws. Here they sat to determine the 
pleas of their barons, whence the hill was denominated 
“ Mons Placiti de Scona, Omnis Terra, or the Mote Hill of 
Scone.” It is usually called by the vulgar Boot-hill, from a 
tradition, that at the “ coronation of a king, every man 
who assisted, brought so much earth in his boots, that every 
man might see the king crowned standing on his own land.” 
It has been said that Malcolm II., seated in the inaugural 
chair on this mount, “ gave and distributed all his lands of 
the realm of Scotland among his men, and reserved nothing 
in propertie for himself, bot the royal dignitie, and the 
Mutehill in the towne of Scone.’’ This distribution, how¬ 
ever, as Guthrie justly remarks, ought to be taken in a 
limited sense, it being incredible, that any prince should 
totally divest himself of all his royal demesnes. It is most 
probable, therefore, that it referred to some general confirm¬ 
ation to his barons of the grants of their lands, which be¬ 
fore that they probably held precariously, and at the will of 
the crown. 
An abbey was founded at this place by Alexander I., in 
the year 1114, and was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and 
St. Michael; but long previous to that period, Buchanan 
and other authors affirm, that its site was occupied by a 
Culdee monastery, and their statement is far from impro¬ 
bable, as it does not seem likely, that a place of so much 
celebrity as Scone should have been destitute of some reli¬ 
gious establishment till the era of Alexander’s foundation. 
The inmates of the new building were canons regular of the 
order of St. Augustine, and were entrusted with the custody 
of the “fatal stone, the palladium of the Scottish monar¬ 
chy,” which was carried off by king Edward I., and still 
remains in Westminster Abbey church. The annual revenues 
of this abbey, even so late as the time of the reformation, 
were very considerable, amounting to 1140/. 65. 6d. Scots, 
besides “ 16 chaldrons and 2 firlots of wheat, 73 chaldrons, 
13 bolls, 2 firlots, and 2 pecks of beave; 62 chaldrons of 
meal, 18 chaldrons and 3 bolls, and 1 last of salmon.” The 
buildings of the abbey were very extensive and magnificent. 
Connected with them was the palace where the Scottish 
monarchs resided when at Scone; the whole being enclosed 
by a wall comprising within it an area of twelve acres. Both 
the abbey and palace were burnt to the ground by a fanatical 
mob, during the fury of the reformation; so that scarcely 
any traces of them can now be discovered, and even the scite 
of the palace is uncertain. It is supposed, however, that 
part of it at least lies under the present palace, the seat of 
the earl of Mansfield. This structure was begun by the earl 
of Gowrie, and was finished by Sir David Murray of Gos- 
patrick (the favourite of king James VI.), to whom that 
monarch had granted it; and the new possessor, in gratitude, 
put up the royal arms in several parts of the house. It is 
in the mixed style of architecture generally prevalent in the 
seventeenth century, both in England and Scotland. The 
length of it in front is about seventy yards, and its depth 
about thirty. The gallery, which looks towards the east, 
measures one hundred and forty feet long, and has a ceiling 
of arched timber-work. “ On the one side of it is painted 
the hunting of a stag in all its different stages; on the other 
are represented the exercise of hawking, the hunting of the 
wild boar, and the wild bull. It is said that king James VI. 
appears in every scene; and that the groups of figures at¬ 
tending him are the nobles of the court, and that all of them 
are exact representations of the originals. The spaces be¬ 
tween the different scenes are filled up with the arms of the 
family, with fruit and flower-pieces, and other ornaments.” 
In a chamber adjoining this gallery, on the north, is a 
canopy of state, used by the second earl of Mansfield, when 
ambassador at the court of Versailles ; and in another, called 
the king’s room, is a curious old bed of orange coloured 
damask sattin, and several antique chairs. A third room, 
on the west side of the house, is named the queen’s room, 
and contains a bed of flowered crimson velvet, said to have 
been the work of Mary Queen of Scots, while a prisoner in 
the castle of Loch Leven. All these chambers are deco¬ 
rated with hangings of fine tapestry, and with portraits of 
the ancestors of the family, and other personages of cele¬ 
brity. In the dining-room, a spacious and elegant apartment, 
are two full-length portraits of George III. and his consort. 
The position of this house is in the midst of an extensive 
lawn, sloping gradually towards the river Tay, which flows 
gently beneath. Except on the south-west, it is shaded by 
a grove of young trees, intermixed with some old ones, 
which rank among the largest in Scotland. On all sides, 
but particularly to the westward, it commands very fine 
prospects. “ On the left hand, at the distance of two or 
three miles, the hills above the Tay and the Earne seem to 
unite, forming a vast theatre decorated with plantations and 
corn-fields. On the right, at the distance of fifteen miles, 
the Grampian mountains assume a similar form, and in the 
middle, industry and skill have given a gay and cultivated 
aspect to a very extensive tract of country.” 
Some years after the destruction of the abbey, an elegant 
parish church was erected on the top of the Mote-hill, by 
the first viscount Stormont; but that structure being much 
out of repair, and too small for the parish, the present church 
w'as erected about thirty years ago in the village. In an 
aisle of the old church, which is still stand iug, are several 
handsome monuments to the memory of members of the 
Murray family. One of them, commemorating the founder, 
merits description. It is composed wholly of marble, and 
seems to have been designed to represent the interior of a 
chapel. In the middle, towards the lower part of it, is a 
statue of his lordship as large as life, clad in armour, kneel¬ 
ing on a cushion before an altar, a book lying open before 
him, and the palms of his hands joined, as if earnestly en¬ 
gaged in devotion. On each side stands the figure of a man 
in armour, somewhat smaller than the life; the one said to 
be the marquis of Tullebatrdine, and the other the earl 
mareschall; above these are several emblematical figures, 
towards the top are the arms of the family, and over all, the 
figure of an angel. 
Scone parish extends three English miles in every direc¬ 
tion, comprising about 4600 Scots acres, of which 3000 are 
under tillage, and 700 planted. The soil, though various, is 
in general extremely fertile; and the air is so dry and salu¬ 
brious, that Scone has been styled the Montpellier of Perth¬ 
shire. Here are several quarries of excellent free-stone for 
building; also an extensive bleaching-field, called Stormont 
Bleach-field, which is connected with the Tay by a canal 
three miles in length. The other principal employment of 
the inhabitants, besides agriculture, is the linen manufacture, 
which gives work to about seventy weavers. According to 
the late parliamentary returns (1811), this parish contains 
318 houses, and 1953 inhabitants, of whom 500 reside in the 
village, which consists of two wide intersecting streets, and 
several lanes. 
The remains of antiquity here, independent of those above 
mentioned, are two stone circles, placed within fourteen 
yards of each other, near the eastern boundary of the parish; 
a part of the Roman military way from the camp of Ardoch 
to 
