William Blake thought that Druids sacrificed human victims on the London Stone!
The London Stone was first mentioned in a gospel book of the West Saxons before 940 A.D. Stow, in 1598 describes the stone on the south side of Cannon Street as fixed in the ground, very deep, fastened with bars of iron and otherwise so strong that if carts run against it, their wheels be broken but the stone remains unshaken. The original function and significance of this limestone remains a mystery. In the Middle Ages, proclamations would be issued from it and binding agreements sworn over it. When Jack Cade, leader of the Kentish rising in 1450 occupied London for three days, he went straight to the London stone which he ceremoniously struck with his sword. A clue to the stone’s significance is other similar stones, such as the Coronation Stone at Westminster Abbey and the Kingston upon Thames stone upon which seven Anglo-Saxon kings were crowned. It is now thought that the London stone was also originally a symbolic source of power and authority.
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