(460)  CULTURAL RESTITUTION CONTINUED

A 13th-century Scottish legal document spotted in the Public Record Office in London by a retired Selkirk policeman was returned to the National Archives of Scotland on Friday 13 May 2005.  The document apparently records litigation between landholders in what is now the Braid district of Edinburgh, which took place during the reign of Alexander III King of Scots (1249-1286).  Having been amongst the Scottish royal documents carried off to Westminster by Edward I in the 1290s, it should have returned to Scotland under the Public Records (Scotland) Act 1937 (which originally inspired the young Ian Hamilton to reflect on the restitution of the Stone of Scone – see his Taking of the Stone of Destiny (Lochar Books, 1991), pp 9-12; and see also No 2).