HISTORY OF THE

[APPENDIX.

xii

anno 1541, and the troubles that followed after (at the time of the Reformation, it was laid aside, beingby the reformers looked on as Popery), which put an end to this King’s noble views, and indeedalmost to the Order itself, till King James VII. revived it in a blue Ribbon, and Queen Annerestored it to the green, as I shall afterwards take notice of; but as yet the Knights (says the saidauthor) have no chapel or hall for their banners.

“ And I am informed, by knowing persons, that the Arms of the said King James V., on his saidPalace of Linlithgow (being never there myself) is placed within the Collars of the Orders of SaintAndrew, the Garter, and Saint Michael, every Collar taking place nearest the shield, according to theantiquity of its standing, which is perfectly agreeable to the regular rules of heraldry at this day.And Mr. Ashmole, in his Institution of the Garter, cap. vii. tells us it was a great mistake committedin marshalling these Collars following, when the Duke of Chevereux affixed it over his Stall atWindsor, the Collars of Saint Michael and the Holy Ghost are placed nearer to his Escutcheon thanthat of the Garter; which was certainly wrong, seeing it is demonstratively evident that of theGarter is much older than the other two; and agreeably hereto, I say it was as gross a mistake of theEnglish painters, who (as narrates the continuator of Mr. Ashmole’s History of the Garter, p. 177),on the funeral Achievement of the late James Duke of Hamilton, placed first the Garter next hisShield, and without that a Collar of the Thistle about it, his Grace having been a Companion of boththese high Orders, an honour very rarely granted to any subject. Now our Order, by what I havebefore related, being proven by far the oldest in time, certainly it was very irregular to place the laterOrder of the Garter within, when our Order of the Thistle being of greater antiquity, is, contrary tothe rules of heraldry, placed without, surrounding the same. But I am hopeful the Earl Marshal andCollege of Heralds of South Britain, as I doubt not but in all their armorial decisions, they make ittheir chief care to do every thing relating to arms agreeably to the regular and just rules of heraldry,and conformably to the opinions of the best and learnedest heralds and professors of this science athome and abroad ; so I do not question but they will hereafter do us (their brethren of North Britain)exact justice in allowing our Most Ancient and Noble Order of the Thistle to possess its due placenext our Sovereign’s Royal Shield, or next the Escutcheons of such Knights Companions as shallhereafter be honoured with both these high Sovereign Orders of Knighthood.

“ As our said King James V. was the first of our Kings that surrounded his Royal Arms with theCollar of the Thistle, so, in imitation of him, his Knights Companions of this Noble Order, surroundedtheir armorial Shields with the same Collar (as those of the Garter had done in England, after theexample of their King, Henry VIII.), an instance whereof I have seen in the Arms of George LordSeaton, who lived in this King’s reign, and was created by him a Knight Companion of this NobleOrder, whose Achievement, as carved on the lining of the great hall of Seaton House, yet to be seen,is surrounded with the Collar of this Order, and thereat hangs in a roundel the Image of Saint Andrewwith his Cross on his breast, which I, in the year 1715, shewed to my Lord Ilay, together with othercuriosities in this ancient house, 1 with which his Lordship was very well satisfied, and carried himselfvery civil to the house of Seaton.

“ Now though the subjects of this Kingdom, after the Reformation, became so zealous in theirreligion, that they disregarded this high and honourable Order of Knighthood, so as to have no betternotions of it but that it was a dreg of Popery, on which head our after Sovereigns, to avoid dis-turbances in the nation, thought it not convenient to call a Chapter thereof: yet to demonstrate theirregard for the honour thereof, and that the memory of the same might not quite perish, they always bypropaling the symbols hereof in their Arms and Coins, kept up the remembrance of this Royal Orderof Knighthood, till the nation began to entertain better thoughts of honour, valour, and Knighthood ;and then King James VII. did not fail to call a Chapter of this Noble Order, as did after him QueenAnne, as I shall hereafter narrate in its due place. 1

1 As Nisbet states that he himself saw the Arms of Lord Seaton, encircled with a Collar of Thistles, such wasprobably the fact; but that Nobleman may have received it as a mark of personal favour from his Sovereign (videp. 14, antea), and placed it round his Arms without thereby becoming a member of an Order of Knighthood. Inno account of the family is George Lord Seaton said to have been a Knight of the Thistle. Seaton House is now

a ruin.