ORDER OF THE THISTLE.

11

to Queen Mary in 1578. * * 3 4 The Collar on the portrait at Windsor, of whichthe annexed engraving is an accurate copy, differs slightly from that on theCoin, in the shape of the Knots, and in having a gold Badge suspended, withthe Cross of Saint Andrew. It was also adorned with pearls:

There is, however, other evidence of the usage of the Collar by King Jamesthe Fifth. In Sir David Lyndsay’s Register of the Arms of the ScottishNobility, in 1542, the Royal Ensigns are surrounded by a Collar formedentirely of gold Thistles, to which an oval Badge is attached, charged with theEffigy of Saint Andrew, standing behind his Cross. 5

The next representation of the Collar, is on the Great Seal of Queen Mary,which more closely resembles the one on the effigy of King James the Fifthon his Coin, than that in his Portrait, or than the Collar in Sir David Lyndsay’s

The anonymous author of “ A Journey through Scotland,” printed in 1719, and quoted by Nisbet,

II. 109, states that King James the Fifth called a Chapter of the worthiest nobility of Scotland, in thePalace of Linlithgow, and added a Collar to the Order of Saint Andrew, and ordered a Throne andTwelve Stalls to be erected in Saint Michael’s Church, in that town, for the Sovereign and Knights ofthe Order, where their Banners were to be hung up, but that his death in 1541, prevented the executionof the design. Sir Walter Scott, in a Note to “ Marmion,” says, “ King James the Fourth’s Throne inSaint Catherine’s aisle, which he had constructed for himself, with twelve Stalls for the KnightsCompanions of the Order of the Thistle, is still shewn as the place where an apparition appeared ” tothat Monarch. But there does not seem to be any better authority than tradition for such anappropriation of that Church.

3 Ashmole, p. 99.

4 Queen Mary had also a picture of King Francis the Second and of the Constable of France.Inventory, ut supra, p. 238. The Picture at Windsor is on pannel, and is undoubtedly an ancientpainting. In one corner are the Arms of Scotland, and on the other the letters “ J. R. S.” Thoughdescribed in the Catalogue as a Portrait of King James the First, the costume and other circum-stances shew that it is of a later period.

5 A fac-simile of this curious Manuscript, which is preserved in the Advocates’ Library, waspublished at Edinburgh in 1822.