ORDER OF THE THISTLE.

17

Lauderdale, who assured me he had met with (among his readings), from goodauthority, a memorial, that this Order consisted of Thirteen Knights, in allusionto the number of Our Blessed Saviour and his Twelve Apostles.”

Though Sir Charles Erskine and the Earl of Lauderdale spoke withcertainty of there having formerly been Knights of the Order, it seems evidentthat neither of them knew any thing more on the subject than what they toldAshmole; and that there were not, at that time, any Members of the Fraternityin existence. It is not unlikely that the information sent to Ashmole wasderived from a History of the Order, written by Sir James Balfour, who wasLord Lyon in the reign of King Charles the First, which is now supposed tobe lost; but, to judge from the extracts printed from his work, * 2 3 that learnedperson appears to have indulged largely in conjecture, and to have been satisfiedwith evidence of a very doubtful character. It is remarkable that the Ensignsattributed to the Knights by Sir Charles Erskine should differ so entirelyfrom the Badge suspended to the Collar on the Great Seal. The CrownedThistle had then been the Royal Badge for nearly two centuries; but theEffigy of Saint Andrew would seem to have been the proper Badge of theKnights, while the Cross of Saint Andrew surmounted by a Crown, which issaid by Ashmole to have been worn on their Robes, was the National Bannerof Scotland, and as such it occurs on the Great Seal, both of Queen Mary,and King James the Sixth, as does also a Banner of the Royal Arms.

The Motto, nemo me impune lacesset, afterwards altered to “ lacessit ,” 4which, as has already been observed, appeared for the first time on the Coin ofScotland in 1581, is attributed to Buchanan, 3 and is certainly a most appropriateepigraph in reference to the Thistle.

Whether the Institution did or did not exist, as an Order of Knighthood,before the reign of King James the Seventh, it is admitted, even by theassertors of the antiquity of the Order themselves, that after the Reformation,Orders of Knighthood being considered in Scotland as relics of Popery, it fell

Impress a Greyhound sitting, with this Motto, ‘ Quietum nemo impune lacesset,’ inferring that hegave no offence to any person, but was ready to offend, and defend himself against those that shouldany ways molest him.”

2 Ashmole, p. 98, then quotes the statement of Favine and Miraeus.

3 See Nisbet, II. pp. 105, 106. 4 Vide p. 7, antea, note 6.

s Dr. Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language. Voce Thkissell.