6

HISTORY OF THE

browdin with Thrissils and a Unicorne.” 1 The next occasion on which theThistle is mentioned, is in Dunbar’s Poem, on the Affiancing of King Jamesthe Fourth and the Princess Margaret of England, written on the 9th of May1503, entitled, “ The Thrissel and the Rois,” 2 in which, by an appropriateallegory, comparing her to the Rose, the Queen of Flowers, and James to theNational Emblem, the Thistle, he celebrates that alliance.

It is evident that the Thistle had not then been long adopted as the RoyalBadge, because in a collection of the Badges of the Scottish Nobility, madeapparently in the reign of King Henry the Seventh, 3 “ the Bage of Scotland ”is described as “ ane sitten Lyoun with ane Crown, and in armid for hisdefence,” and he is depicted with a Sword in one paw, and a triangularStandard, charged with the Arms of Saint Andrew in the other; and the“ Bage and the Floure of France” is said to be “ ane Lyllie quhich gronandgrene.” 3 But no notice whatever occurs of a Thistle; nor is it once to be foundin the Arms of any of the Nobility or Gentry of Scotland, collected by SirDavid Lyndsay of the Mount, Lord Lyon, in 1542, common as it now is inScottish Heraldry, though Roses, Fleurs de Lis, Leaves, Cinquefoils, andsimilar Bearings abound in that Register. In Sir David Lyndsay’s “ Deplo-ration of the death of Queene Magdalene,” he thus personifies King James theThird, under the Symbol of the Thistle, and his late Consort under that ofthe Fleur de Lis :

“ Thogh thou [Death] hast kild the Hevenly flour of France,

Which imped was into the Thrissell keene,

Wherein all Scotland saw their plesance;—

And made the Lyon reioyced from the spleeneThogh root be pulled from the leaves greene,

The smell of it shall in despite of thee,

Keepe aye two Realmes in peace and amitie.” 4

1 “ Inventare of ane parte of the Gold and Silver cunyeit and uncunyeit, Jowellis, and uther Stuffpertening to umquhile oure Soverane Lordis Fader that he had in depois the tyme of his deceis, andthat come to the handis of oure Soverane Lord that now is m.cccc.lxxxviii.” This and the othercurious Inventories of the Royal Effects which will be cited, are preserved in the General Register

House at Edinburgh, and were printed in 1815, by Thomas Thomson, Esq. Deputy Clerk Register of

Scotland.

4 Poems of William Dunbar, now first collected, with Notes, and a Memoir of his Life by DavidLaing, Esq. Edinb. 1834, vol. I. p. 3. None of Queen Margaret’s Jewels seem to have been orna-mented with Thistles, though one of her numerous Collars was enamelled with white Roses. See“ The Inventour of the Jowellis and Baggis being in the Coffiat was takin furtht of the Castell ofTemptalloun and deliverit to the Commissionaris and procuratouris to the Queenis Grace, now being in