THE BLACK ROOD OF SCOTLAND

I am not satisfied with what W. S. G. has written on this subject; and as I feel interested in it, perhaps I cannot bring out my doubts better than in the following Queries. 1. Instead of this famous cross being destined by St. Margaret for Dunfermline, was it not transmitted by her as an heir-loom to her sons? *Fordun*, lib. v. cap. lv. "*Quasi munus hæreditarium transmisit ad filios.*" Hailes (*Annals*, sub anno 1093) distinguishes the cross which Margaret gifted to Dunfermline from the Black Rood of Scotland; and it is found in the possession of her son David I., in his last illness. He die…