Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting the Perth Museum and seeing the Stone of Destiny and learning more about its fascinating history.The stone was used in Scotland as part of the ceremony to crown a new king, at least as far back as the coronation of the seven-year old King Alexander III in 1249.
The Stone of Destiny
Just over 700 years later, the Stone of Destiny could be found in Westminster Abbey in London. So it was that, on Christmas night 1950, four young Scottish students decided that it was time for Scotland to have its own special present. They broke into Westminster Abbey and removed the Stone of Destiny. They were eventually able to smuggle it back north of the border to Scotland.
After a long and arduous police search, the culprits were found and the stone ended up being returned to London. However, the students were never charged. Moreover, when in 1996, the John Major government was facing a potential wipeout in Scotland, the Stone of Destiny was officially returned to Scotland and its people. Not that it did the Tories any good; they won not a single seat in the general election in Scotland the following year.
The Stone of Destiny was brought back to Westminster Abbey for the coronation of King Charles III in 2023, but even then the son of one of the original students who took the stone complained that it shouldn’t have been taken back to London. Jamie Hamilton was quoted as saying that his late father would have been displeased to learn that the ancient symbol of Scottish royalty he had once taken back from the English, was being used for the coronation of Charles.
The Stone of Destiny was of course hardly the only historic artefact that ended up in London when perhaps it shouldn’t have done. Anybody doing the rounds of the big museums and London will be able to see many historic items that really have little or nothing to do with the city.
The Lindisfarne Gospels
One of the most spectacular and beautiful of those items, is of course our very own Lindisfarne Gospels. The Lindisfarne Gospels are inextricably linked to the rise of Christianity in Northumbria in the 7th century and are also linked closely to the life of St Cuthbert who was the Prior at Lindisfarne monastery on what is now known as Holy Island. It has been noted that the inscription added to the original text at the end of the 10th century stated that the Lindisfarne Gospels were written in honour of God and St Cuthbert, by Eadfrith, who was the Bishop of Lindisfarne until his death in 721.
The book’s original binding was in leather which was provided by Ethelwald who had succeeded Eadfrith as Bishop of Lindisfarne and who died in about 740. He himself had been associated with Cuthbert during his lifetime.
The beautiful artwork in the book is said to be attributed to the Northumbrian school, showing a fusion of Irish, early Anglo-Saxon, classical and Byzantine elements of manuscript illumination. The intricate artwork in the Gospels is of global importance, both as a piece of artwork from the so-called Dark Ages, and in terms of sacred art in particular.
After the first Viking incursion onto Lindisfarne in 793, the Gospels were hidden and then carried around by monks from Lindisfarne to keep them safe and secure. In all, they were carried around Northumbria for around 200 years, so that, like Cuthbert’s body, they could be kept intact. We owe a great debt of gratitude to those men of God, who carried out this crucial task. Having taken such care to see that the Gospels remained safe and secure in Northumbria, the home of St Cuthbert, I wonder what the monks would think now about where the Gospels are located today.
Home to stay
Perhaps like me, you have been to see the Lindisfarne Gospels in their so-called current home in the British Library on Euston Rd in London. Whenever I’ve seen them there, they have seemed sadly neglected and unloved, just one of numerous sacred texts in a rather dimly lit room. There never seems to be any real sense of just how special they are.
I have read arguments that the Gospels should be in London because scholars will be more likely to be there to examine the Gospels. Leaving aside the fact that this is a very condescending view of North East England, it also begs the question why can’t scholars in London, 325 miles away from where the gospels were actually produced, can’t be content to see facsimiles, while the real Lindisfarne Gospels can stay back home in Northumbria.
As to where the Lindisfarne Gospels should be kept, the initial obvious answer would probably be on Lindisfarne itself. However, it is unlikely that a building could be found there which would have the right atmosphere and security for the Gospels to remain truly safe and secure. Happily, however, a good alternative exists.
The last time that the Gospels were loaned back to us here in Northumbria, was in 2022, when they were exhibited at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle. However, I have another place in mind for them. Palace Green Library in Durham has housed the Gospels before when they were on one of the occasions when the British Library were kind enough to lend them back to us in 2015. It is therefore proven that that is a safe and secure place for the gospels to be kept. And surely it would be far more appropriate for them to be kept only a few hundred yards from the tombs of St Cuthbert and St Bede in Durham Cathedral than on Euston Rd in London.
Sited there, the Gospels would add to the tourist lure of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Durham Cathedral and would no doubt be more cherished than they would ever be in London. It could then be a boost to the tourism industry of the Northeast, bringing in much needed extra revenue.
Far more importantly, the Gospels can be seen by our school children and by our population in general and act as they should do, as a symbol of Northumbria’s greatness and a source of pride and inspiration for the people of the Northeast. Just as the Stone of Destiny, a symbol of the political independence of Scotland came home to Caledonia, so the Lindisfarne Gospels, a potent symbol of our cultural and spiritual heritage, should come home to Northumbria. It is time the Gospels were brought home and this time were home to stay.
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