One of the most stirring protest events, before my time but it grabbed me, was the Stone of Destiny’s first removal from Westminster. So I was saddened to read of the death of Kay Matheson, one of the gang of four who had chutzpah by the bucketload.
I first read Ian Hamilton’s The Taking of the Stone of Destiny more than twenty years ago. My original copy disappeared, one of the hard lessons of lending books, whether to family, friends or friends of friends. If I remember correctly it might have been someone in doing some wallpapering. There’s no wallpaper at all at Grasshopper Towers.
But I replaced that back, finding a good copy in a second-hand bookshop. And I read it again.
Just a few months ago I saw the Stone itself, safe in Edinburgh Castle now. I had seen it previously, in Westminster Abbey. But I thought on this second viewing of Hamilton’s yarn, and his escapades with Kay Matheson and others.
By the time the book was published Ian Hamilton was an eminent QC, and one with a bit of a reputation, from a rich and varied life. His book captured the occasion, those dark nights of entering the Abbey and getting away again. And away they got, with a lump of rock, back on the long road to its homeland.
The stone was a mystery for a long time. Where was it, who was behind it?
As it happened I had some indirect professional contact with one of the others involved, not in the trip itself but in the months of harbouring the Stone when the search was on. But I was young then and knew not the importance of the event, and I missed the chance to talk about it.
And so Kay Matheson can tell her tale no more. But I think I’ll read Hamilton’s book once again. On the inside back cover the final words are He believes Scotland will be free. I do too; it’s just a pity that Kay Matheson won’t be around next year, though it will have pleased her that at last we have the chance.
laidbackviews 